St. LOUIS – Missouri State’s Spencer Nivens was named the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Week in baseball on Monday for his performances against Kansas and Bradley in which he hit .563 while reaching safely at least three times in all four contests. The award is the first of his career.An outfielder from Columbia, Mo., Nivens went 9-for-16 at the plate and walked four times in four games, posting a .650 on-base percentage and .875 slugging figure in a 3-1 week for the Bears.Tuesday at Kansas, the third-year sophomore finished a double shy of his second cycle this season while driving in two runs and scoring twice. He went 2-for-3 with a walk and run scored Friday against Bradley and 2-for-4 with two RBI and a walk on Saturday. In Sunday’s win, Nivens reached four times and scored twice while driving in a run to help the Bears complete the sweep of the Braves.Nivens is hitting .350 this season and ranks among the MVC’s top four hitters in home runs (9), triples (4), hits (43), slugging percentage (.683), RBI (31) and runs (30). He has started all 30 games in center field without making an error in 72 total chances.Nivens and the Bears host in-state rival Missouri at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Hammons Field.
