10 Raiders Receive Horizon League Baseball Honors
5/20/2014 4:00:00 AM | Baseball
10 members of the Wright State baseball team were recognized as the Horizon League announced its postseason honors on Tuesday.
Head coach Greg Lovelady was named the league's Coach of the Year while senior Joey Hoelzel was selected as the Co-Pitcher of the Year, junior Andrew Elliott the Relief Pitcher of the Year and catcher Sean Murphy the Freshman of the Year.
Hoelzel, junior second baseman Michael Timm and senior outfielder Jeff Limbaugh were all chosen to the First Team while sophomore pitcher Robby Sexton, Sean Murphy, senior third baseman Jack Murphy and sophomore designated hitter Jason DeFevers were selected to the Second Team. Named to the All-Freshman Team were Sean Murphy and outfielder Brad Macciocchi.
Lovelady, in his first season at the helm after serving as the associate head coach at WSU for seven years and assistant coach for two years prior to that, led the Raiders to a school-record 25 league wins and an .862 league winning percentage. The 33 overall wins this season are the most ever by a first-year Wright State baseball coach, eclipsing the 26 won by Rob Cooper in 2005.
Lovelady's selection of Coach of the Year is fifth all-time in Raider history, joining the two each won by Ron Nischwitz (1992 and 2004) and Cooper (2010 and 2011).
Hoelzel (Canfield, OH/Canfield) led the league in innings pitched with 89.1 and was tied for the lead in wins with seven. He was third in earned run average (3.43), fourth in opposing batting average (.255) and sixth in strikeouts with 55. Hoelzel struck out a season-high 12 in a win over Dayton on March 7 and fanned nine at Youngstown State on March 29.
The Horizon League Pitcher of the Week on February 17 and March 16, Hoelzel tied for the lead in wins during league play with five and was fifth in earned run average (3.43), tied for sixth in strikeouts (34) and sixth in opposing batting average (.247).
Hoelzel is the first Raider to win Pitcher of the Year honors since Joe Smith in 2006. He is just the third all-time, joining Brian Anderson (1992 and 1993), who won the two while Wright State was part of the Mid-Continent Conference (now Summit League).
Elliott (Wheelersburg, OH/Wheelersburg) leads the league and is ranked 12th nationally with 13 saves. The 13 saves tie him for the second-most in school history, only trailing the 15 by Mark Squire in 1999. 10 of his 13 saves came during league play, six of those on the road, including two each at UIC and Oakland.
Despite pitching just 35 innings the entire season, Elliott ranked ninth in the league in strikeouts with 49, 34 of those coming in league play, and has recorded a 0.77 earned run average, allowing just three earned runs and four runs overall on the year.
The Horizon League Pitcher of the Week on April 27, Elliott is only the second Wright State pitcher to ever receive the Relief Pitcher of the Year award, joining Michael Schum, who won it in 2009, 2011 and 2012.
Sean Murphy (Centerville, OH/Centerville) had an impressive first season behind the plate for the Raiders as he hit .305 with a team-leading four home runs and drove in 31 while throwing out 16 would-be base stealers. He tied for second in the league in triples (3) and was ffith in total bases (87), tied for sixth in hits (58) and home runs (4), seventh in slugging percentage (.458) and runs scored (37), eighth in RBI (31) and tied for ninth in doubles (11).
The Horizon League Batter of the Week on March 9 and May 4, Murphy tied for third in triples (4), home runs (4) and stolen bases (8) during league play, was third in total bases (56), fourth in hits (39), tied for fifth in runs scored (24), fifth in slugging percentage (.479), tied for eighth in walks (15), tied for ninth in batting average (.333) and was 10th in on-base percentage (.426).
With Murphy's selection, WSU has now four Freshman/Newcomer of the Year honorees in its history (Trent Matthews 2001, Quentin Cate 2009, Corey Davis 2011).
Timm (Twinsburg, OH/Twinsburg) was among the team and league leaders in nearly every offensive category in 2014. Overall, he led or tied for the league lead in runs scored (40) hits (66) and doubles (16), was second in total bases (95) and walks (29), third in on-base percentage (.445) and fifth in batting average (.338), slugging percentage (.487) and RBI (35).
In league play, Timm again led the way in hits (43) and was second in on-base percentage (.464) and total bases (60), tied for third in runs scored (27), RBI (22), doubles (9) and walks (18), fourth in batting average (.371) and slugging percentage (.517).
Named to the Capital One Academic All-District Team by the College Sports Information Directors of America earlier this month, Timm was part of the league's All-Academic Team in 2013 and All-Newcomer Team in 2012.
Limbaugh (Crown Point, IN/Crown Point) was ninth in the league and second on the team with a .321 batting average. He also had 29 runs scored, 24 RBI and eight stolen bases. The Horizon League Batter of the Week on April 20, Limbaugh had five hits in the series at nationally-ranked Oregon State and six in a series at Oakland and at home against Youngstown State. He finished with 12 multi-hit games, all but two during league play.
Sexton (Pataskala, OH/Watkins Memorial), along with Hoelzel, gave the Raiders a solid 1-2 punch at the top of the rotation. He held the opposition to a .224 batting average, tops in the league, and tied for the lead in wins with seven. Sexton was also second in earned run average (3.31), fourth in strikeouts (57) and seventh in innings pitched (73.1). He struck out a season-high 10 against Bradley on March 8 and fanned seven versus Oakland on March 23.
The Horizon League Pitcher of the Week on March 24, Sexton again tied for the lead in wins during league play with five and was second in earned run average (2.93) and opposing batting average (.225), fifth in strikeouts (35) and 10th in innings pitched (46.0).
Jack Murphy (Oak Forest, IL/Oak Forest) came on strong towards the end of the season as he hit .281 in league play with 11 RBI in 20 games. He drove in four against Milwaukee on April 12 and two versus Youngstown State on May 3.
DeFevers (Cincinnati, OH/Sycamore) hit .297 with 23 RBI as he saw action as the designated hitter, catcher and first baseman. He hit .330 in league play with 19 RBI, tied for eighth in the league, and 14 runs scored, including a five for five effort with six RBI and three runs scored against UIC on March 15.
Macciocchi (West Chester, OH/Moeller) hit .297 in his first season for the Raiders with 22 RBI and 33 runs scored. His numbers were even stronger in league play as he hit .330 with 14 RBI and 24 runs scored, recording 11 multi-hit games and scoring two or more runs six times.
Along with his offensive numbers, Macciocchi also contributed in setting up the WSU offense as his eight sacrifice bunts tied for fifth in the league, with all but one of those coming during conference play. He also tied for second in sacrifice flies with five.
Wright State (33-20, 25-4 Horizon) opens Horizon League Tournament play on Thursday, May 22, as the top-seeded Raiders face the lower seeded winner of Wednesday's games, which will be either #4 seed Milwaukee, #5 seed Oakland or #6 seed Youngstown State, at Kapco Field on the campus of Concordia University Wisconsin in Mequon, Wisconsin. The tournament continues through Sunday, May 25, with the winner receiving an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.The following is the 2014 baseball All-Horizon League teams:
FIRST TEAM ALL-HORIZON LEAGUE
| Name | School | Yr. |
Pos. |
| Dalton Lundeen | Valparaiso | So. | P |
| Joey Hoelzel | Wright State | Sr. | P |
| Alex Jurich | UIC | Sr. | C |
| Jeff Boehm | UIC | Jr. | 1B |
| Michael Timm | Wright State | Jr. | 2B |
| Michael Morman | Valparaiso | Sr. | 3B |
| Mike Brosseau | Oakland | So. | SS |
| Ryan Solberg | Milwaukee | Sr. | OF |
| Robby Enslen | Oakland | Jr. | OF |
| Tyler Detmer | UIC | Jr. | OF |
| Jeff Limbaugh | Wright State | Sr. | OF |
| Jacob McNamara | UIC | Sr. | DH |
| John Coen | UIC | Sr. | UT |
SECOND TEAM ALL-HORIZON LEAGUE
| Name | School | Yr. |
Pos. |
| Tim Koons | Oakland | Sr. | P |
| Robby Sexton | Wright State | So. | P |
| Sean Murphy | Wright State | Fr. | C |
| Pat Wilson | Milwaukee | Sr. | 1B |
| Alex Lee | UIC | Jr. | 2B |
| Mickey McDonald | UIC | Fr. | 3B |
| Jack Murphy | Wright State | Sr. | 3B |
| Ryan McShane | Milwaukee | Jr. | SS |
| Alex Larivee | Youngstown State | Fr. | OF |
| Chris Manning | Valparaiso | Sr. | OF |
| Connor Philbin | UIC | So. | OF |
| Jason DeFevers | Wright State | So. | DH |
| Tyler Hermann | Milwaukee | Jr. | UT |
HORIZON LEAGUE ALL-FRESHMAN TEAM
| Name | School | Pos. |
| Mitchell Schulewitz | UIC | P |
| Mario Losi | Valparaiso | P |
| Ellis Foreman | Valparaiso | P |
| Kevin Yarabinec | Youngstown State | P |
| Sean Murphy | Wright State | C |
| Zach Sterry | Oakland | 1B |
| Brett Krause | UIC | 3B |
| Mickey McDonald | UIC | 3B |
| Cody Bohanek | UIC | SS |
| Alex Larivee | Youngstown State | OF |
| Brad Macciocchi | Wright State | OF |
Player of the Year: Ryan Solberg, Sr., OF, Milwaukee
Co-Pitchers of the Year: Joey Hoelzel, Sr., Wright State and Dalton Lundeen, So., Valparaiso
Relief Pitcher of the Year: Andrew Elliott, Jr., Wright State
Freshman of the Year: Sean Murphy, Fr., C, Wright State
Coach of the Year: Greg Lovelady, Wright State
