E8 Places 11 on All-Region Teams
D3 All-Region Team |
ABCA All-Region
The Empire 8 continued to receive praise as eleven baseball student-athletes were named All-Region by d3baseball.com and ABCA/Rawlings.
St. John Fisher senior
Nick Flemister was tabbed as d3baseball.com's Player of the Year for the New York Region as the Pittsford native was named First Team All-region by both organizations after helping lead Fisher to one of its most successful seasons to date.
Flemister, who was also named the Empire 8 Player of the Year earlier this season, was nothing short of magnificent behind the plate for the Cardinals. He ranked sixth nationally with 21 doubles on the year, which set a new Fisher single-season record. He also compiled the second-highest batting average in the Empire 8 at .408. Flemister's 64 hits this season were tops in the conference moving him to fourth all-time on the single-season list at Fisher, while his 33 RBI this season ranked second on the team and among the best in the conference.
Ithaca junior
John Prendergast was named d3baseball.com's Pitcher of the Year for the New York Region as he was named First Team All-Region by both organizations.
Prendergast, the E8 Pitcher of the Year, went 9-1 on the season with a 2.60 earned-run average. He threw three complete games and allowed just six walks this season against 56 strikeouts. He ranks fifth in the NCAA in strikeout-walk ratio and with 27 career wins stands just four wins away from tying the Ithaca record in career pitching victories.
Also earning First-Team All-Region honors by both organizations for the third year in a row was two-time All-American
Justin D'Amato. D'Amato finished his senior year with a 9-1 record with 65 strikeouts and a 1.69 ERA.
The southpaw will go down as one of the best to wear the Cardinal colors, finishing with a 36-5 career record, which is good for ninth place all-time in NCAA Division III history. A four-time All-Conference selection, he also totaled 325 career strikeouts, passing former MLB great Billy Wagner for 19th place on the all-time list.
The Canandaigua native finished second in the conference in both earned run average and opposing batter average, which was a measly .195. D'Amato is Fisher's all-time leader in innings pitched (276.2), strikeouts (325), ERA (2.11) and games started (46).
Brad Rush was also named All-Region First Team by both entities after playing a pivotal role in Fisher's 31 wins this season. Rush earned All-Conference honors for the fourth straight year and was named First-Team for the second straight season. Earlier in the year, the first baseman became the all-time leader in doubles surpassing Steve Karnyski to conclude his career with 54, 17 of which came this season for the Cardinals. The Albion native also registered a conference-leading .421 batting average and .515 on base percentage.
Rush closed out season on a tear with a 15-game hitting streak for Fisher going 16-for-24 (.667) in Fisher's final six games. His 59 hits this season ranked second in the conference behind Flemister. A career .326 hitter, Rush started 135 games in four years for Fisher.
Sophomore third baseman
Cody Wiktorski was named First-Team All-Region by both d3baseball.com and ABCA/Rawlings as the Penfield native proved to have a powerful bat in the middle of the order. Wiktorski led the Empire 8 in slugging percentage (.612) and ranked third among conference peers in hits (54) and batting average (.403).
A two-time Conference player of the Week, Wiktorski also showed a knack for playing the hot corner as he made only seven errors all season while playing to a .938 fielding percentage.
Ithaca senior
Tim Henry was named an ABCA second-teamer and a D3Baseball.com third-teamer. Henry totaled 43 hits on a .347 batting average to go along with a team-high 30 runs scored. The second-baseman recorded 99 assists and 77 putouts.
Stevens sophomore
Jayson Yano was a D3Baseball.com second-teamer and an ABCA third teamer as a utility player after a stellar season at the plate and on the mound. Offensively, he led Stevens in batting average (.342), at bats (152), hits (52) and runs scored (26), while striking out just once all season. Yano also ranked second in doubles with nine and stolen bases with 16, and was third in runs batted in with 22. The Foothill Ranch, Calif. native committed just three errors all season in 127 chances.
On the mound, Yano tossed a team-best 50 innings in nine starts with a 5-3 record. He threw one complete game shutout in the CUNYAC semifinals and fanned 46 batters on the season to go along with a 1.62 ERA. He only issued 10 free passes all year and only gave up four extra base hits.
Yano was a second-team selection in the Empire 8 and first-team all-star in the CUNYAC. Along with that, he also found a spot on the New York Regional All-Tournament Team.
Ithaca's
Luke Stark was named Third-Team All-Region by D3baseball.com as an outfielder. Stark hit .355 at the plate with 25 runs scored and seven extra base hits. He played in all 36 games with a .988 fielding percentage.
Ithaca's
Cobly Gee was named Third Team All-Region by the ABCA as a first baseman. He appeared in all 36 games, recording 291 putouts and 24 assists with a .987 fielding percentage. Gee led the Bombers with a .369 batting average and 33 RBI.
Stevens senior
Mark Poinsett was a go-to arm out of the bullpen all year for the Ducks and appeared in a team-high 16 games. The d3baseball.com second-teamer went 3-1 overall with three saves and combined on three shutouts in 24.1 innings pitched with 24 strikeouts to just one walk. The southpaw finished his senior campaign with a 0.74 earned-run average and held opponents to a .182 batting average.
Cardinal's Marc Iseneker was named Second-Team All-Region by ABCA/Rawlings as the freshman pitcher led the nation in hits allowed per nine innings (4.36) translating to opposing batters hitting just .151 on the season. The right-hander appeared in nine games this season earning a 7-1 record and 2.05 ERA, which was fourth lowest in the Empire 8.