Nine Raiders Receive Horizon League Baseball Honors
5/24/2016 4:00:00 AM | Baseball
Nine members of the Wright State baseball team were recognized as the Horizon League announced its postseason honors on Tuesday.
Two Raiders received individual awards as head coach Greg Lovelady was selected as the Coach of the Year while pitcher Caleb Sampen was chosen as the Freshman of the Year.
Senior pitcher Jesse Scholtens and senior outfielder Ryan Fucci were named to the First Team while Sampen, junior pitcher Trevor Swaney, junior catcher Sean Murphy, junior shortstop Mitch Roman and freshman outfielder Peyton Burdick were named to the Second Team. Selected to the All-Freshman Team were Sampen and Burdick along with outfielder JD Orr.
Lovelady, who previously won the Coach of the Year award in 2014, has directed WSU to back-to-back seasons of 40 or more wins after the program had reached the 40-win plateau just three times in its first 44 years. In just his third season at the helm, Lovelady recorded his 100th win on April 13 at Miami and has an overall record of 119-54.
Sampen (Brownsburg, IN/Brownsburg) is second in the league with a 2.62 earned run average, third in opposing batting average at .209 and tied for fourth in wins with seven. In league play, he went 6-2 with a 2.52 ERA in 60.2 innings while holding the opposition to a .210 batting average.
Sampen struck out a season-high seven in a win over Northern Kentucky on April 3 and had five strikeouts in picking his first collegiate win against Eastern Michigan on March 12.
This is the third straight year that a WSU player has earned Freshman of the Year honors as Murphy won the award in 2014 and Gabe Snyder last season. The Raiders have now had six Freshman/Newcomer of the Year honorees in their history (Trent Matthews 2001, Quentin Cate 2009, Corey Davis 2011).
Scholtens (Fairfield, CA/Rodriguez) is tied for the league lead in wins with nine and in starts with 14, is second in strikeouts with 87, innings pitched at 95.2 and in opposing batting average at .205 and is third in ERA at 2.63. In league play, he went 6-1 with a 2.17 ERA and 55 strikeouts in 62.1 innings.
Scholtens pitched the first perfect game in school history on March 11 with a 1-0 win at Dayton, striking out a career-high 12 in the process. He struck out nine at Youngstown State on April 22 and eight on three other occasions, including at North Carolina State on February 26. The Horizon League Pitcher of the Week on March 14, Scholtens was a Second Team All-League selection in 2015.
Fucci (Lexington, KY/Tates Creek), who was selected as the Horizon League Batter of the Week on Monday, is currently hitting .325 with a team-best 11 home runs, 58 RBI and 25 stolen bases. He is first in the Horizon League in home runs, RBI and stolen bases, second in total bases (113), third in slugging percentage (.541), seventh in hits (68), runs scored (45) and on-base percentage (.414) and eighth in batting average.
In league play, Fucci hit .321 with six home runs and 34 RBI. In 13 games so far in May, he is hitting .438 (21 for 48) with five home runs, 21 RBI, 14 runs scored, four doubles and five stolen bases. During that stretch, he also has an .833 slugging percentage and a .508 on-base percentage.
Swaney (Wheaton, IL/Wheaton Academy) is tied for the league lead with nine runs and is four in ERA at 2.82 and seventh in opposing batting average at .238. In league play, he was a perfect 4-0 with a 2.74 ERA.
Swaney allowed just two hits and no runs with five strikeouts at Miami in the finals of the Joe Nuxhall Classic on April 13, leading the Raiders to their second consecutive Classic crown and fourth overall, having previously won the tournament in 2012, 2013 and 2015. He also picked up wins this season over Elon, Xavier twice, Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky, Oakland, Milwaukee and UIC.
Murphy (Dayton, OH/Centerville) hit .270 with six home runs, 29 RBI and 33 runs scored despite missing six weeks due to an hand injury. In league play, he knocked in 17 in 17 games and scored 18 runs.
A First Team All-League honoree in 2015 and named to the All-Freshman Team in 2014, Murphy drove in seven runs in the four-game series at Elon to start the season, had four hits and three RBI in three games at North Carolina State and had five RBI in a doubleheader at Oakland.
Roman (Fishers, IN/Hamilton Southeastern) is tied for the league lead with 51 runs scored, second with 76 hits and five triples, tied for second with 24 stolen bases and is seventh with a .342 batting average. In league play, he hit .336 with 24 RBI and 27 runs scored.
A First Team All-League selection in 2015, Roman's four stolen bases at Elon on February 21 are the most by any league player in a game this season. He leads the squad with 23 multi-hit games, including seven of three or more hits, and had the longest hitting streak of any Raider player in 2016 at 11 games.
Burdick (Batavia, OH/Glen Este) is ninth in the league with a .413 on-base percentage. He currently has a .296 batting average, is tied for the team lead with 13 doubles and has scored 36 runs. In league play, Burdick hit .326 with nine doubles, 18 RBI and 22 runs scored.
Burdick hit .355 over the final 23 games of the regular season, including nine hits in five games with nine RBI against Oakland and four hits with four runs scored in the three-game series at UIC last weekend.
Orr (Mount Vernon, OH/Mount Vernon) is ninth in the league with a .324 batting average. In league play, he hit a team-best .404 with 17 runs scored.
The Horizon League Batter of the Week on April 5, Orr's six-for-six performance against Northern Kentucky on April 1 are the most hits by a league player in a game so far this season. He collected three hits in games against Eastern Michigan, Valparaiso and UIC and recorded 17 multi-hit games overall, good for third on the team.
Wright State (41-15, 23-6 Horizon) will be the #1 seed and host of this week's Horizon League Tournament, which begins on Wednesday with two games. The Raiders will face the lower seeded winner of Wednesday's games, which will be either #4 seed UIC, #5 seed Oakland or #6 seed Northern Kentucky, Thursday morning at 11:00. The tournament continues through Saturday, May 28, with the winner receiving an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
The following is the 2016 baseball All-Horizon League teams:
FIRST TEAM ALL-HORIZON LEAGUE
| Name | School | Yr. |
Pos. |
| Brian Keller | Milwaukee | Sr. | SP |
| Dalton Lundeen | Valparaiso | Sr. | SP |
| Jesse Scholtens | Wright State | Sr. | SP |
| Trevor Lane | UIC | Sr. | RP |
| Daulton Varsho | Milwaukee | So. | C |
| Ricardo Ramirez | UIC | Jr. | 1B |
| David Cronin | UIC | So. | 2B |
| Shea Molitor | Valparaiso | Sr. | 3B |
| Mike Brosseau | Oakland | Sr. | SS |
| Ryan Fucci | Wright State | Sr. | OF |
| Nolan Lodden | Valparaiso | Sr. | OF |
| Luke Meeteer | Milwaukee | Sr. | OF |
| Daniel Delaney | Valparaiso | Sr. | DH |
| Ian Yetsko | Oakland | Sr. | UT |
SECOND TEAM ALL-HORIZON LEAGUE
| Name | School | Yr. |
Pos. |
| Trevor Haas | Valparaiso | Sr. | SP |
| Caleb Sampen | Wright State | Fr. | SP |
| Trevor Swaney | Wright State | Jr. | SP |
| Nate Green | Oakland | So. | RP |
| Sean Murphy | Wright State | Jr. | C |
| Logan Spurlin | Northern Kentucky | Sr. | C |
| Nate Palace | Valparaiso | Jr. | 1B |
| Billy Quirke | Milwaukee | Jr. | 2B |
| Ben Hart | Oakland | So. | 3B |
| Mitch Roman | Wright State | Jr. | SS |
| Peyton Burdick | Wright State | Fr. | OF |
| Josh Clark | Valparaiso | So. | OF |
| Quint Heady | Northern Kentucky | Sr. | OF |
| Alex Dee | UIC | Fr. | DH |
| Trey Ganns | Northern Kentucky | So. | UT |
HORIZON LEAGUE ALL-FRESHMAN TEAM
| Name | School | Pos. |
| Elijah Goodman | Milwaukee | RHP |
| Caleb Sampen | Wright State | RHP |
| Will Haueter | Northern Kentucky | C |
| Wyatt Mascarella | UIC | C |
| Chase Dawson | Valparaiso | IF |
| Sam Shaikin | Valparaiso | IF |
| Kyle Benyo | Youngstown State | OF |
| Peyton Burdick | Wright State | OF |
| Ryan Fitzgerald | Oakland | OF |
| JD Orr | Wright State | OF |
| Scott Ota | UIC | OF |
| Alex Dee | UIC | DH |
Player of the Year: Daulton Varsho, So., C, Milwaukee
Pitcher of the Year: Brian Keller, Sr., RHP, Milwaukee
Relief Pitcher of the Year: Trevor Lane, Sr., LHP, UIC
Freshman of the Year: Caleb Sampen, RHP, Wright State
Coach of the Year: Greg Lovelady, Wright State
