After an eye-opening first weekend of his collegiate career, Valparaiso University baseball freshman Cal Schembra (Greenwood, Ind. / Center Grove) earned immediate recognition as he was named the Missouri Valley Conference Freshman of the Week on Tuesday.
 
Schembra had a huge opening weekend at Gardner-Webb, batting .500 with a double, home run, five RBIs and four runs scored. He reached at a .533 clip and slugged .786. Schembra also had a diving catch in foul territory and doubled up the runner who tried to tag and score in the season opener. The rookie had three hits in his collegiate debut before following with two more in Game 2 of the series. He posted a third straight multi-hit game including a key two-run homer in Valpo's one-run win in Game 3 of the series.
 
Schembra's diving catch was ranked No. 2 on D1Baseball's top plays of the week, while he was also ranked as the No. 77 Hitter nationally in Week 1 of the season by D1Baseball.
 
Schembra became the first ever recipient of the MVC Freshman of the Week Award in baseball as the league added Freshman and Newcomer honors to its smorgasbord of weekly awards this season.
 
The Beacons will be back in action this weekend with three games in South Carolina starting on Friday at Wofford.