Reading's Savery named EL Pitcher of the Week
New Hampshire Dopirak, in town June 23-25, named top player

Reading, PA – The Eastern League has announced the winners of their weekly awards for the week ending June 21st.

Joe Savery, a left-handed starting pitcher for the Reading Phillies, is the Eastern League Pitcher of the Week. 

The 6’3”, 215 lb. southpaw appeared in two games for the R-Phils last week and posted a record of 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA and nine strikeouts over 11 innings pitched. 

Savery made his first appearance of the week on Monday in the annual morning game at FirstEnergy Stadium against Harrisburg and pitched six shutout innings to earn the win as Reading downed the Senators 5-2. He struck out four batters and walked three while giving up just one hit. In his second appearance of the week on Saturday night against Harrisburg the 23-year old entered the game in the second inning in relief of Philadelphia closer Brad Lidge, who was with the R-Phils on a rehab assignment. He earned the win after striking out five batters and allowing just four hits and one walk in five shutout innings of work. 

In addition to his pitching performance, the Houston, Texas native also had an outstanding week offensively, going 3-for-7 with two runs scored. 

Joe, who currently leads the league in wins (9), was selected by the Philadelphia Phillies in the first round of the 2007 draft after going 11-1 with a 2.99 ERA as a junior at Rice University.

New Hampshire Fisher Cats first baseman/designated hitter Brian Dopirak has been named the Eastern League Player of the Week. The Fisher Cats visit Reading June 23-25.

The 25-year old took home the award for the second time this season after hitting .464 (13-for-28) with two doubles, three home runs, nine RBI, six runs scored, one stolen base, one walk and a .857 slugging percentage in seven games for the Fisher Cats last week. 

Dopirak had at least one hit in each of the games he played in last week, including five multiple hit games. He also drove in at least one run in five of the seven games, including going 3-for-5 with a homer, three RBI and two runs scored in an 8-2 win over Erie on Saturday night at Merchantsauto.com Stadium. 

The 6’4”, 230 lb. slugger currently leads the league in home runs (16), RBI (53), hits (81), doubles (22) and total bases (153). He is also ranked second in slugging percentage (.580), fourth in OPS (.948) and tied for ninth in batting average (.307). 

Brian, who was named the designated hitter on the Florida State League All-Star Team last season after hitting .308 with 27 homers and 88 RBI for the Dunedin Blue Jays, was signed by the Toronto Blue Jays as a free agent on March 31, 2008.

This story was posted on June 22, 2009