Baseball lands several postseason accolades
Griffins earn Newcomer of the Year and second and third team recognition.
St. Louis, Mo. - Several Griffins have garnered postseason accolades as announced by the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tonight.
Freshman Austin Earnest (Ironton, Mo./Arcadia Valley) took home top honors after being named the SLIAC's Newcomer of the Year. The right-handed pitcher struck out 63 batters over 51 innings in his inaugural season on his way to a team-leading five wins. Earnest also bolstered one save to his 5-4 record. In conference play, Earnest went 3-3 with a complete-game victory and struck out 40 in 32.1 innings of work. Earnest left nine batters at the plate over five innings against Blackburn which included striking out the side in order in both the first and third innings. His career-high 13 strikeouts came in a 4-3 win against Principia where he ended the first, second and fifth innings with strikeouts while striking out the side in the fourth and seventh innings. Earnest was second among SLIAC pitchers with 11.13 strikeouts per conference game. He is the sixth Newcomer of the Year for Fontbonne and second under head coach Ryan Good.
Juniors Ben Greenway (Jacksonville, Fla./Arlington Country Day) and Devon Tolan (Crystal City, Mo./Crystal City) both earned SLIAC Second Team All-Conference Honors.
Greenway, a designated hitter, led all Fontbonne starters with a .358 batting average. He was seventh among SLIAC players with a .405 conference batting average and led the Griffins in all three averages in conference play with a .478 on-base percentage and .595 slugging percentage. The left-handed hitter recorded 32 hits, 13 RBI's and nine doubles in SLIAC play. His nine conference doubles ties him with five others for the top spot. On the season he led the Griffins with 52 hits, 37 RBI's, 14 doubles and four home runs. Last season Greenway earned First Team honors at first base.
Tolan, earned his first all-conference honors as a utility player. He averaged .323 overall with 30 hits, 17 RBI's, nine walks, five doubles and three home runs. In conference, Tolan's batting average wasn't much lower (.317) as he recorded 15 hits, 10 RBI's, four walks, three doubles and two home runs. The third baseman can also pitch. On the mound in SLIAC play, Tolan struck out 16 batters over 13 innings, averaging 11.05 strikeouts per game and a 2.08 earned run average. Tolan was 1-0 in conference with two saves.
Sophomore Ryan Schocker (Schaumburg, Ill./Schaumburg) earned SLIAC Third Team All-Conference recognition. This is the first baseman's first time earning such honors. Schocker came back from a mid-season injury and went four-of-four at the plate in the Griffins' 5-2 win over Iowa Wesleyan at the end of the season. Schocker averaged .380 in SLIAC play with a .460 slugging percentage. All four doubles and 12 of his 16 RBI's were against SLIAC competition along with 19 hits and two walks.
To round out Fontbonne postseason accolades, senior Miguel Villegas (Davenport, Fla./Ridge Community) represented the Griffins on the SLIAC All-Sportsmanship Team for the second year in a row.