SIOUX CITY — The Sioux City Explorers’ Mitchell Verburg was named the first Pitcher of the Week of the American Association of Professional Baseball for the 2023 season.
Verburg pitched the second game of Sioux City’s season-opening doubleheader on Saturday and pitched five innings of shutout baseball with nine strikeouts against the Kansas City Monarchs and surrendering just one hit over that span. He was awarded the win in the game.
Last season, Verburg was used out of the Explorers’ bullpen and threw 24 ⅓ innings over 17 appearances with a 1.48 earned run average.
Verburg is a 25-year-old right-hander who is 6-foot-4, 215-pound and pitched collegiately at Oregon State University. He’s a native of Lake Oswego, Oregon.
Including a stint with the Trenton Thunder, a team in a developmental summer league where he started three games, Saturday was just the fifth time Verburg has started a game since he began college.
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In four seasons at Oregon State, Verburg had a 9-3 record in over 93 innings pitched with 107 strikeouts and a 3.27 ERA plus seven saves.
Sioux City took three games over the Kansas City Monarchs over the weekend to start the season. Verburg was one of several pitchers that were sharp for the Explorers as Sioux City out-scored the Monarchs 19-2 over the three-game set.
Out of high school, Verburg was rated as the No. 2 prospect in Oregon by Perfect Game and fourth-best player in the state by the publication Baseball Northwest. He was a three-year letter-winner at Oswego High School.
Across all three levels Verburg has played since graduating high school, he maintains a combined record of 11-3 with a 2.78 ERA with 168 strikeouts over 139 innings worked.
Sioux City's Game 1 starter, Solomon Bates, also threw five scoreless innings to start the season for Sioux City.
The Explorers, who were off Monday, start a three-game series at home at Lewis and Clark Park against the Lake Country Hounds on Tuesday.