Local product James Sells has been tabbed Conference USA Pitcher of the Week for his appearances on April 6-8 at WKU, hurling for the MTSU Blue Raiders.

The sophomore from Winchester who played for the Tullahoma Wildcats in high school, came out of the bullpen in all three games for Middle Tennessee baseball to earn saves against the Hilltoppers, as the Blue Raiders secured a three-game series sweep over their rivals in the Bluegrass State.

On Thursday’s series opener, Sells recorded the final four outs and retired the side in order in the ninth to clinch a 6-3 win. The righty once again registered a four-out save Friday night, recording a pair of strikeouts and stranding the tying runners in scoring position as the Blue Raiders clinched the series with a 2-0 victory.

Sells would go 1.2 frames in Saturday’s weekend finale, inducing a trio of groundouts and stranding the tying runner on first as Middle Tennessee left Bowling Green with a 5-4 win.

With six saves now on the season, Sells leads the team and is tied for second in C-USA in that category. Across 34.1 innings in 2023, his ERA stands at 4.98 across all matchups and 3.52 in conference play.

Winners of six straight, the Blue Raiders move to 17-13 on the season and 8-4 in the league, and currently sit in third place in C-USA.

Sells is majoring in sports medicine at MTSU and is the son of Chris and Michele Sells. During his freshman year, he was named to the 2021-22 Conference USA All-Freshman Team after winning four games, striking out 37 batters and posting an ERA of 3.60. 18 appearances (four starts). He also went five straight outings without allowing an earned run (16 innings pitched) from March 15 to April 12 of last season. He did not allow more than two earned runs in 16 of his 17 regular season appearances his freshman year.

While pitching for Tullahoma High School, he threw a no hitter and gave himself run support by driving in the only two runs of the game back on April 24, 2019.