BURLINGTON, N.C. — Former Statesboro Blue Devil Crawford Simmons worked 14 and two-thirds innings of scoreless baseball this past week, and the Appalachian League rewarded him for his good work by naming him the Pitcher of the Week for the period from August 2-8.
    Simmons led the Burlington Royals to a 1-0 victory at Bristol Monday, working seven and two-thirds and striking out 11.
    He scattered two base hits and only faced two more than the minimum.
    Sunday night, the lefty was just as dominant. He worked seven scoreless innings and again allowed only two base hits. Burlington went on to defeat the defending champion Danville Braves 4-0.
    Simmons now sits at 4-1 with a 2.78 ERA in 2010. He leads the team with 55 innings pitched and 56 strikeouts.
    The southpaw now joins Leonel Santiago as Royals who have taken home weekly honors this season. Santiago earned the Pitcher of the Week distinction last month.
    Simmons and the Royals begin a three-game series at Johnson City Monday night at 7 p.m. All of the play-by-play action can be heard on www.burlingtonroyals.com beginning at 6:30 p.m.

Lady Eagles honored for academics
    For the second consecutive year, the Georgia Southern Women’s Tennis team was named an ITA All-Academic Team for Division-I women’s athletics as announced by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.
    In addition, five Eagles were named ITA Scholar-Athletes for their success in the classroom.
     “I am very proud of our team for earning academic honors from the ITA,” said GSU coach Amy Bonner. “The team makes academics a priority and it is nice to be recognized as a team and individually for doing so.”
     This is the third honor for the team in Bonner’s reign. The Eagles also earned the award in 2004 and 2009.