MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. - Trinity University's Ryan Lucero, Pat Hirschberg and Zack Speer were named to the 2013 D3baseball.com All-America team, the website announced this morning. Lucero highlighted the team as he was a first-team selection. Complete All-America Team
Lucero was the only first team-selection from the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference. Hirschberg earned second-team laurels while Speer was named honorable mention All-America.
Lucero, a senior left-hander, was named the 2013 SCAC Pitcher-of-the-Year after compiling a 10-1 record with a sparkling 1.98 ERA. He struck out no fewer than four in each of his 13 starts during the season and averaged 8.78 strikeouts per nine innings pitched.
He led the SCAC in wins (10), strikeouts (80) and opponents' batting average (.209) while ranking in the top five in earned run average (1.98 – 2nd), innings pitched (82.0 – 3rd), and complete games (4 – 4th).
The 2012 D3Baseball.com All-American was a two-time SCAC Pitcher of the Week this season (Week 1, Week 5). Lucero's Pitcher-of-the-Year honor 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.
Hirschberg, a junior oufielder, was named the 2013 SCAC Co-Player-of-the-Year after ranking in the top five in the league in nearly every offensive category during the regular season, including league-leading totals in batting average (.385), slugging percentage (.701), runs batted in (54), triples (7), home runs (9) and total bases (122). Hirschberg also earned a spot on the 2013 SCAC All-Tournament team where he hit .625 with six RBI and three runs scored.
He was also ranked in the top five in the SCAC in on-base percentage (.459 - 2nd), hits (67 - 2nd), walks (22 - 2nd), runs scored (43 - 4th), doubles (14 - tied 4th). Hirschberg was a three-time SCAC Offensive Player-of-the-Week (Weeks 4, 6 and 10) during the 2013 season and became Trinity's fifth SCAC Player-of-the-Year honoree and the first since Evan Jones won the honor in 2010.
Speer, a sophomore right-hader, was a first-team All-SCAC selection after going 9-0 with a 1.51 ERA. He and Lucero combined for nearly half of Trinity's school record 40 wins this season. He was also named to the 2013 SCAC All-Tournament team after going 1-0 with a 1.12 ERA.
Speer led the SCAC in ERA (1.51) and earned runs allowed (12 ) and ranked among the league leaders in opponents' batting average (.215 - 2nd), innings pitched (71.1 - 5th), strikeouts (70 - 2nd) and wins (9 - 2nd). He threw a complete game in Trinity's 4-2 win over Texas-Tyler in last week's NCAA West Regional.
On Monday, all three players were named to the D3baseball.com All-West Region team.
