LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. – Joe Jimenez of Texas Lutheran University earned another accolade on his outstanding season after being named American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA)/Rawlings Region 10 Co-Player of the Year on Tuesday. He joins eight total SCAC baseball players named All-Region 10.
It marks the 18th consecutive season the SCAC has had five or more student-athletes land on an ABCA/Rawlings All-Region team. Trinity paced all SCAC programs with four selections, followed by Centenary with three and TLU with one.
In addition to his ABCA/Rawlings All-Region First Team and Co-Player-of-the-Year honors, Jimenez was also named First Team All-Region by D3baseball.com, SCAC Player-of-the-Year, First Team All-SCAC, a member of the D3Baseball.com Team of the Week three times this season, and National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) National Hitter of the Week (March 16).
Jimenez finished the 2022 campaign with a .374/.460/.742 slash line accompanied by 15 homers, 10 doubles, 49 runs, 67 RBI, 21 walks, and 14 stolen bases. Included in Jimenez's monster season were three multi-homer games - two of which came in a five-homer series against East Texas Baptist. Defensively, the fourth-year shortstop started 41 games, producing a .970 fielding percentage with 111 assists on 167 total chances. Jimenez's 15 home runs ranked second in the SCAC and 15th in the country. The San Antonio native also ranks fifth nationally in runs batted in per game (1.63), 15th in home runs per game (0.37), and 39th in slugging percentage (.742).
Joining Jimenz on the First Team is Centenary College senior Preston Ludwick. Ludwick is making his second-straight appearance on the First Team, this year as a utility player. He reached three individual milestones this season – 200 hits, 150 RBI, and 150 strikeouts on the mound. The versatile and dynamic Ludwick earned First Team All-SCAC honors at first base, earning top All-SCAC honors for the third time in his career. Ludwick was the leading hitter in the conference (.405) and ranked in the top 10 in the SCAC in multiple statistical categories. He played in all 46 games for the Diamond Gents and finished with 70 hits in 173 at-bats with 39 runs scored, 45 RBI, 33 walks and just 24 strikeouts. He hit five home runs, 11 doubles, three triples, and stole two bases. Ludwick was also one of Centenary's top pitchers this season, going 5-4 with a team-leading 13 starts. He threw one complete game and struck out 58 batters in 60.2 innings pitched.
The SCAC also landed two-student athletes on the All-Region 10 Second Team in Trinity’s Brian Schaub and Centenary’s Tyler Herrera.
Schaub, a First Team All-SCAC outfielder, has proved to be a difficult out in the heart of the Tiger lineup en route to helping guide Trinity to its third College World Series in program history. The Hatfield, Pa. native enters this weekend’s CWS with a .331 batting averaged (50-for-151), 61 RBI, 57 runs scored, 49 walks and a school record 16 home runs.
Herrera, the league’s Freshman and Pitcher-of-the-Year was sensational this past season in helping Centenary capture the SCAC Tournament Title and a trip to the NCAA Tournament last month. He finished in the top 10 in the country in ERA (1.59) and went 7-1 with two complete games. Herrera, whose ERA was under 1.00 for most of the season, made 16 appearances and nine starts and in 73.2 innings pitched allowed just 13 earned runs and 61 hits with 25 walks and 59 strikeouts. Herrera is the first SCAC student-athlete to earn either Region 10 honor since TLU’s Nathan Malinovsky won both in sperate seasons, first Rookie-of-the-Year in 2016 and then Pitcher-of-the-Year in 2018. Earlier this week Herrera was also named the D3baseball.com Region 10 Rookie and Pitcher-of-the-Year.
Rounding out the SCAC ABCA/Rawlings All-Region 10 selections were Trinity junior first baseman MJ Metz, Trinity junior outfielder Ezra Gore, Centenary junior pitcher Parker Primeaux and Trinity sophomore pitcher Joseph Chavana, earning Third Team recognition.
Gore, Primeaux and Chavana were all named First Team All-SCAC, while Metz earned Second Team all-league.
To view the entire ABCA/Rawlings All-Region 10 Team, click here.
