LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. - In exclusive voting by the head coaches of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC), Nathan Malinovsky of Texas Lutheran University was named Pitcher-of-the-Year and Freshman-of-the-Year.  

Malinovsky, a freshman right-hander from New Braunfels, is the first player in SCAC history to earn both Freshman- and Pitcher-of-the-Year honors in the same season. He is currently leading the league in earned run average (2.19), complete games (5) and shutouts (2) and sports an 8-1 mark heading into this weekend's conference tournament. The eight wins are the second-best in the SCAC as are his 78.0 innings pitched. Malinovsky has struck out 55 batters (third in the SCAC) this season and opponents are managing just a .221 batting average. The freshman earned SCAC Pitcher-of-the-Week honors last week when he pitched the Bulldogs to a share of the SCAC regular-season title by tossing a complete-game, four-hit shutout at Southwestern.

In addition to making league history by earning both Freshman- and Pitcher-of-the-Year, Malinovsky is the first Texas Lutheran player to earn a SCAC baseball postseason major award. The Bulldogs joined the SCAC prior to the 2014 season.

In earning Pitcher-of-the-Year honors, Malinovksy received four votes from the coaches. Sophomore right-hander Kaleb Kirk of Centenary College picked up two votes while junior left-hander Chris Tate of Trinity received the remaining first-place vote.

Malinovsky earned five first-place votes in the Freshman-of-the-Year balloting. First-year right-hander Thomas Martin of University of Dallas and first-year left-hander Tyler Polasek of Southwestern University split the remaining two first-place votes.