Fernandez, Miner earn MLB Draft League weekly honors

NEW YORK -- The MLB Draft League announced that West Virginia’s Adan Fernandez and Patrick Miner have been named Hitter and Pitcher of the Week, respectively, for the period of Aug. 22 to Aug. 28. It is the second time this season that the Black Bears have swept the Draft League’s weekly awards.

Fernandez, 23, picks up Hitter of the Week honors after batting .435 (10-for-23) with five home runs, three doubles and 11 RBI in six games for the Black Bears. He led all MLB Draft League qualified hitters during the period in home runs, RBI, slugging (1.217), OPS (1.769), runs scored (10) and total bases (28).

Fernandez tallied six extra-base hits and seven RBI during West Virginia’s three-game series against Frederick. After homering in the Aug. 23 series opener, Fernandez was 3-for-4 with two home runs, a double and three RBI the next day in his first multi-homer game. He added another home run Aug. 26 against Mahoning Valley, going 2-for-4 with three RBI, then connected on his fifth homer the following day, scoring four runs in a 1-for-3 performance. Fernandez recorded at least one hit, one RBI and scored one run in five of his six games.

Through 27 games, Fernandez is batting .355/.465/.645 with five home runs, eight doubles and 22 RBI. The Miramar, Fla., native played three seasons at Nova Southeastern University before joining West Virginia in the MLB Draft League. As a Sharks senior this past spring, he batted .307/.411/.570 in 49 games, setting career highs in home runs (12), doubles (13) and RBI (45).

Miner, 23, spun six scoreless innings of two-hit ball in the Black Bears’ 5-1 win over Mahoning Valley on Aug. 26. He recorded six strikeouts and five groundouts and faced one over the minimum in the start, throwing strikes with 49 of 71 pitches. He retired nine straight batters after allowing a one-out single in the first and returned from a lengthy third-inning weather delay to retire the last four in that stretch.

Miner (2-2) is 1-0 with a 0.95 ERA and a 0.74 WHIP over his last three starts. He completed at least six innings in all three outings, compiling 19 strikeouts against two walks in 19 innings in that stretch, and has now allowed three earned runs or fewer while completing at least six innings on four occasions this season. Overall, Miner has a 4.70 ERA with 40 strikeouts and six walks in 38.1 innings (seven starts) for the Black Bears this summer.

A native of White House, Texas, Miner was 16-8 with a 4.55 ERA and 208 strikeouts over 199.2 innings in four years at Arkansas Tech University. He garnered First Team All-Great American Conference honors as a senior this past spring after going 7-4 with a 4.91 ERA in 15 games (14 starts).

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