MILLINGTON, Tenn. – Evan Jones of Trinity
University was named the league’s Offensive
Player-of-the-Year and Elliott Ross of DePauw University was
selected the league’s Pitcher-of-the-Year in exclusive 2010
all-Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) voting by the
conference’s head coaches. In that same balloting, Bruce
Maxwell of Birmingham-Southern College was voted the
conference’s Freshman-of-the-Year, while Trinity head coach
Tim Scannell and Birmingham-Southern head coach Jan Weisberg split
the votes among their peers to share SCAC Coach-of-the-Year
honors.
Evan Jones, a senior first baseman from Hillsboro,
Calif., led the SCAC during the regular season in batting average
(.480), slugging percentage (.888) and on-base percentage (.583).
He is also currently in the top six in the conference in hits (60
– fourth), runs batted in (61 – tied for first), runs
scored (46 – sixth), home runs (12 – second) and total
bases (111 – third). A three-time All-SCAC First Team
selection, Jones is the fourth different player from Trinity to win
the league’s Offensive Player-of-the-Year and the first since
Jason Armstrong in 2004. Jones currently has 210 hits for his
career – making him just the 26th player in league history to
record 200+ career hits. His 183 career RBIs is currently good for
sixth on the all-time SCAC charts.
Elliott Ross, a sophomore left-hander from Cleves,
Ohio, is the second DePauw player to earn SCAC Pitcher-of-the-Year
in the last three years – following John Tschantz who picked
up the honor following the 2008 season. Ross has appeared in 12
games this season, pitching 45.1 innings while allowing just 13
earned runs for a 2.58 ERA (second in the SCAC). He has won a
league-high eight games against just one loss while also picking up
one save, and opponents have hit a league-low .218 batting average
against the southpaw this season. Ross was a perfect 4-0, struck
out 18 batters and did not allow an earned run in 18.1 innings of
conference competition.
Bruce Maxwell, a first-year first baseman from
Toney, Ala., hit .431 in his inaugural season with the Panthers
(seventh in the SCAC) with a league-high 15 home runs – the
fourth-most in a SCAC single season. In addition, he is currently
in the top 10 in the league in slugging percentage (.882 –
second), on-base percentage (.500 – tied for seventh), hits
(62 – third), runs scored (47 – fifth), runs batted in
(61 – tied for first) and doubles (18 – tied for
first). Maxwell is the second Birmingham-Southern College player to
win the league’s Freshman-of-the-Year award. Sam Hill won the
award in the school’s first year in the SCAC in 2008.
Trinity head coach Tim Scannell, in his 12th
season as the Tigers’ skipper, was named the SCAC
Co-Coach-of-the-Year after leading his squad to a 28-7 regular
season mark (13-4 in the SCAC West) heading into the conference
tournament. Scannell, who is a five-time SCAC COTY honoree (1999,
2004, 2006, 2008, 2010), has the highest winning percentage of any
coach in league history (.695) and is among the top 20 of all
active NCAA Division III coaches. The team is just two wins shy of
earning Scannell his ninth 30+ win season as head coach of the
Tigers. Only Jim Page of MillsapS College (with six) has earned
more SCAC Baseball Coach-of-the-Year honors than Scannell.
Birmingham-Southern head coach Jan Weisberg has
led the Panthers to a 33-4 mark (14-1 in the SCAC East) this season
and the program is currently ranked sixth in the nation in both the
ABCA and D3baseball.com polls. In his third season on the Hilltop,
Weisberg has posted an 81-35 record (through Sunday’s games)
in leading the BSC baseball program through the transition to
Division III. With two games remaining on its regular season
schedule, the team’s 33 victories is already tied for the
19th-most in a SCAC single season, and the Panthers have finished
atop the SCAC East each of the last two seasons (tied with DePauw
in 2009).
For the complete 2010 SCAC All-Conference baseball team, click here.