GEORGETOWN, Texas – Pat Hirschberg of Trinity University and Craig Littlemen of Centenary College split the votes and were named the league's Offensive Co-Players-of-the-Year and Ryan Lucero of Trinity University was selected the league's Pitcher-of-the-Year in exclusive 2013 all-Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) voting by the conference's head coaches. Complete Release
In that same balloting, Paul Arecement of
Centenary and Rene Vargas, Jr., of the University of
Dallas were voted the conference's Co-Freshmen-of-the-Year,
while Trinity head coach Tim Scannell and Centenary head coach Mike
Diaz were selected SCAC Co-Coaches-of-the-Year.
As for the All-SCAC team, Trinity earned a league-high 10 First
Team selections while Centenary followed closely with eight
selections.
Hirschberg, a junior outfielder from Parker, Colo., ranked in the
top five in the SCAC in nearly every offensive category during the
regular season, including league-leading totals in hits (57),
triples (6), home runs (7), runs batted in (45), total bases (104)
and slugging percentage (.727). He is also second in the league in
batting average (.399), third in runs scored (37) and fourth in
both on-base percentage (.464) and doubles (14). A three-time SCAC
Offensive Player-of-the-Week (Weeks 4, 6 and 10) during the 2013
season, Hirschberg is Trinity's fifth SCAC Player-of-the-Year
honoree and the first since Evan Jones won the honor in 2010.
Littlemen, a senior third baseman from Lechee, Ariz., ranked in
eight offensive categories during the regular season, including
batting average (.385 – third in the SCAC), slugging
percentage (.585 – third), on-base percentage (.457 –
fourth), total bases (76 – tied for third), hits (50 –
fifth), runs batted in (31 – tied for fourth), doubles (15
– third) and triples (4 – tied for third). Littlemen,
who was the SCAC Player-of-the-Week in Week 8, recorded 14 multiple
hit games and six multi-RBI efforts during the regular season and
registered the longest hit streak on the team at 11 games.
Hirschberg and Littlemen each received two votes in the
Player-of-the-Year balloting while Trevor Keele of the University
of Dallas received one vote.
Lucero, a senior left-hander from Aurora, Colo., bounced back as
strong as ever after his 2012 season ended with Tommy John surgery.
Heading into this weekend's conference tournament, he leads the
SCAC in wins (8) and strikeouts (65) and ranks in the top five in
earned run average (2.38 – third), innings pitched (68.0
– fourth), opposing batting average (.214 – third) and
complete games (3 – fourth). The 2012 D3Baseball.com
All-American has been a two-time SCAC Pitcher of the Week this
season (Week 1, Week 5). Lucero's selection marks the third
consecutive year a Trinity pitcher has been named the league's top
hurler (Ben Klimesh won in 2011 and 2012) and the eighth time
overall.
Lucero earned four votes for SCAC Pitcher-of-the-Year. Andrew
Bossert of Dallas received the remaining vote.
Arecement, a first-year right-hander from Shreveport, La., made 12
appearances for the Gents this season, including seven starts
(third on the team). He finished the regular season with an earned
run average of 4.63 and his 22 strikeouts were the fourth-most on
the Centenary staff. In 35.0 innings of work (fourth on the team),
Arecement had a won-loss mark of 1-1 with one save.
Vargas Jr., a first-year shortstop from San Antonio, Texas, batted
.348 this season (ninth in the SCAC) with 40 hits and 23 runs
scored. He showed a good eye in his first collegiate season,
reaching base via a base on balls 18 times (fourth in the SCAC)
while posting an impressive .440 on-base percentage (seventh in the
SCAC). Vargas did a good job of fielding his position, settling
down after committing six of his 10 errors in the team's first 10
games to post a .927 fielding percentage.
Both Arecement and Vargas received two votes in the SCAC
Freshman-of-the-Year balloting to share the honor. First-year
second baseman Connor Moore of Trinity received the remaining
first-place vote.
Centenary head coach Mike Diaz, in his ninth season with the
Gents; third as the team's head coach, continues to successfully
navigate the program from its transition to Division III as
witnessed by two consecutive 24+ winning seasons, including his
current squad's 24-13 mark heading into this weekend's SCAC
tournament. Diaz has had the unenviable task of managing a program
that has played its last three seasons in three different
conferences – from the Division I Summit League in 2011 to
the American Southwest Conference in 2012 to the SCAC this season.
With his SCAC Co-Coach-of-the-Year honor, Diaz becomes just the
third head coach to be so honored in his team's first year
participating in the conference – joining Rose-Hulman's Jeff
Jenkins (1999) and Austin College's Carl
Iwasaki (2007).
Tim Scannell, the winningest Trinity baseball coach in history,
has amassed a career record of 478-196 (heading into this weekend's
SCAC tournament) since taking over as head coach in 1999. His
winning percentage of .709 places him in the top-15 among active
NCAA Division III coaches, and he has guided the Tigers to seven
trips to the NCAA postseason tournament (including three in a row
from 2010-2012), and to six SCAC championships. On four occasions
– in 2002, 2004, 2008, and 2012 – the Tigers advanced
to the NCAA Regional final, just one game shy of qualifying for the
Division III College World Series. Trinity, currently 33-7, has
been ranked as high as No. 2 in the nation this season, and the
team's win total marks the 12th time the Tigers have achieved
a 30-plus win season in the past 14 years. For his efforts, Coach
Scannell was named SCAC Coach of the Year for the eighth time, and
for the fourth consecutive year, making him the most decorated
baseball coach in conference history.
Diaz and Scannell received two votes each from their peers in the
SCAC Coach-of-the-Year balloting. James Rise of Austin College
received the remaining first-place vote.
2013 SCAC Co-Players-of-the-Year
Pat Hirschberg, Trinity University, Junior,
Outfielder, Parker, Colo.
Craig Littlemen, Centenary College, Senior, Third Baseman, Lechee,
Ariz.
2013 SCAC Pitcher-of-the-Year
Ryan Lucero, Trinity University, Senior, Pitcher,
Aurora, Colo.
2013 SCAC Co-Freshmen-of-the-Year
Paul Arecement, Centenary College, First-Year,
Pitcher, Shreveport, La.
Rene Vargas, Jr., University of Dallas, First-Year, Shortstop, San
Antonio, Texas
2013 SCAC Co-Coaches-of-the-Year
Mike Diaz, Centenary College, 15-5 SCAC / 24-13
overall – top seed SCAC tourney
Tim Scannell, Trinity University, 15-5 SCAC / 33-7 overall –
ranked seventh in the nation
