BAY CITY, Mich. - The 2011 All-Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) Baseball teams and postseason awards were announced in conjunction with the opening round of the Conference Tournament held in Chillicothe, Ohio at V.A. Memorial Stadium.
Grand Valley State University junior outfielder Cody Grice (DeWitt, Mich.) was named the 2011 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) baseball “Player of the Year” by the league’s head coaches in all-conference balloting. Ashland University senior Ajay Meyer (East Halmer, Ohio/Owens C.C.) was named the 2011 GLIAC baseball “Pitcher of the Year.”
The coaches named Grand Valley State rookie Bill Maple (Kalamazoo, Mich./Vicksburg) the conference’s “Freshman of the Year,” while Steve Lyon, head coach of Grand Valley State’s baseball team, was tabbed the “Coach of the Year.”
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Grice is the fifth Laker to win “GLIAC Player of the Year” in school history and the first since 2001. Grice is hitting .389 this season with 50 runs, four home runs and 50 runs-batted-in. He has a .590 slugging percentage and a .490 on-base percentage, both top five marks in the GLIAC. He ranks second in the league in runs, RBI, and hit by pitches with 12, the fourth highest single-season total in school history. Grice ranks in the top eight in the conference in batting average, slugging percentage, on-base percentage, runs, hits (56), RBI, doubles (11), triples (3), home runs (4), total bases (85), walks (28), hit by pitch, sacrifice flies (12) and stolen bases (18).
Meyer has put together one of the best pitching seasons in recent AU memory. He was 9-3 with a 1.47 ERA in the regular season and set the school single-season record for complete games with 11. Meyer is the GLIAC leader in strikeouts (94) and innings pitched (92.0) and is tied for the league lead with nine wins. He made 15 appearances and also had two saves this season to go along with three complete game shutouts. The Hamler, Ohio native went the distance in all but one of his starts. In nine of his appearances he allowed no earned runs. Opponents are batting just .187 off him this season and he has walked just 13 batters. On May 7, he threw the first one-hitter of his career against visiting Hillsdale. For his career, Meyer is 19-5 with 19 complete games.
Maple was named the GLIAC “Freshman of the Year” after tallying a 7-0 record with a 1.95 ERA and 37 strikeouts in 37 innings pitched. His seven wins are the most in school history for a freshman. Maple led the team with a .161 opponent’s batting average and never yielded more than four hits in any start this season. He had a team-high 10 strikeouts against Tiffin on April 16th (6 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 BB), the only time this season a Laker recorded double-digit strikeouts. Maple went the first 22.1 innings of the season without allowing an earned run and has only allowed three extra base hits all season long. He’s the fourth Laker in school history to win the honor.
Lyon, earns the GLIAC Coach of the Year, for the second time in his career (2003). Lyon has guided the Lakers to the top winning percentage in NCAA Division II this season and the Lakers finished the regular season with the best GLIAC record in conference history. The team’s 45 wins are the most in school history in the regular season while the three losses are the least in school history in the regular season. Lyon notched his 500th career victory as the head coach of the Lakers on May 7th with a 4-3 win over Ohio Dominican, with a career record now standing at 502-187-2 (.728) as the Lakers’ head coach. He has helped construct the longest winning streak in school history, with the Lakers having won 25 straight games, besting the 2006 squad that had a 21-game winning streak. The Lakers won the 15th GLIAC title in school history this year, the eighth in the last nine years and the eighth in Lyon’s career.
GLIAC Baseball All-Conference First Team |
|||||
Pos. |
Name |
School |
Year |
B/T |
Hometown/Previous School |
DH |
Cory Phillips |
Grand Valley State |
Sr. |
R/R |
Normal, Ill./Heartland C.C. |
C |
Michael Wiseman |
Wayne State |
Sr. |
L/R |
White Lake, Mich./Lakeland |
1B |
Pat Curtin |
Tiffin |
Jr. |
R/L |
Mason, Ohio/Moeller |
2B |
Garrett Yatch |
Grand Valley State |
Jr. |
L/R |
Midland, Mich./Kellogg C.C. |
SS |
Ryan Rua |
Lake Erie |
Jr. |
R/R |
Amherst, Ohio/Steele |
3B |
Tyler Gray |
Ashland |
Fr. |
R/R |
Plain City, Ohio/Jonathan Alder |
INF |
Matt McAllester |
Ashland |
Sr. |
L/R |
Westlake, Ohio |
OF |
Steve Anderson |
Grand Valley State |
Jr. |
R/R |
Northville, Mich. |
OF |
Cody Grice |
Grand Valley State |
Jr. |
R/R |
DeWitt, Mich. |
OF |
Brandon James |
Lake Erie |
Sr. |
R/R |
Mentor, Ohio |
OF |
Evan Melendez |
Ashland |
Sr. |
L/L |
Amherst, Ohio/Steele |
SP |
Carson Beauchaine |
Saginaw Valley State |
So. |
R/R |
Fraser, Mich. |
SP |
Ryan Garman |
Grand Valley State |
Jr. |
R/R |
Cedar Rapids, Iowa/Johnson County C.C. |
SP |
Ajay Meyer |
Ashland |
Sr. |
R/R |
East Halmer, Ohio/Owens C.C. |
SP |
Kyle Schepel |
Grand Valley State |
Jr. |
L/R |
Grand Rapids, Mich/Christian |
RP |
Brad Zambrong |
Grand Valley State |
So. |
L/L |
Waterford, Mich./Brother Rice |
GLIAC Baseball All-Conference Second Team |
|||||
Pos. |
Name |
School |
Year |
B/T |
Hometown/Previous School |
DH |
Matt Pochmara |
Hillsdale |
Fr. |
R/R |
Farmington, Mich. |
C |
JT Feldkamp |
Ohio Dominican |
Sr. |
R/R |
Lorain, Ohio/Admiral King |
1B |
Giancarlo Brugnoni |
Grand Valley State |
Fr. |
R/R |
Grosse Pointe, Mich./De La Salle |
2B |
Felix Brown |
Ohio Dominican |
Sr. |
S/R |
Philipsburg, St. Maarten/Milton Peters |
SS |
Andrew Trepel |
Grand Valley State |
Sr. |
R/R |
Joliet Ill./Indiana State |
3B |
Jordan Chiero |
Tiffin |
Jr. |
R/R |
Gahanna, Ohio/New Albany |
INF |
Adam Connell |
Hillsdale |
Sr. |
R/R |
Chelsea, Mich. |
OF |
C.J. Maszal |
Wayne State |
Jr. |
R/R |
Allen Park, Mich./Ohio University |
OF |
Kyle O’Boyle |
Saginaw Valley State |
So. |
R/R |
Midland, Mich./Bullock Creek |
OF |
Matt Toth |
Lake Erie |
Jr. |
L/R |
Lorain, Ohio/Admiral King |
OF |
Paul Young |
Grand Valley State |
Sr. |
L/R |
London, Ont./Grand Rapids C.C. |
SP |
Mark Heard |
Northwood |
Jr. |
R/R |
Novi, Mich. |
SP |
Aaron Hilt |
Ashland |
Jr. |
R/R |
Richmond, Ohio/Edison |
SP |
Brett Shankin |
Wayne State |
Sr. |
L/R |
Washington, Mich./Romeo |
SP |
Josh Wedesky |
Wayne State |
Jr. |
R/R |
Fowlerville, Mich. |
RP |
Billy Hurley |
Wayne State |
Jr. |
R/R |
Mississauga, Ont./Binghamton |
GLIAC Baseball All-Conference Honorable Mention |
|||||
Pos. |
Name |
School |
Year |
B/T |
Hometown/Previous School |
1B |
Austin Erb |
Ashland |
So. |
L/L |
Strasburg, Ohio/Hanover |
RP |
Andrew Pinkelman |
Ashland |
Jr. |
L/R |
Delta, Ohio/Evergreen |
OF |
Jason Reitenbach |
Findlay |
Sr. |
R/R |
Brunswick, Ohio/Youngstown State |
INF |
Tommy Roush |
Findlay |
So. |
L/R |
Kettering, Ohio/Fairmont |
C |
Jared Cowan |
Grand Valley State |
Jr. |
R/R |
Davison, Mich. |
C |
Zach Laupp |
Grand Valley State |
Jr. |
R/R |
Mattawan, Mich. |
SP |
Brent Opland |
Hillsdale |
Sr. |
L/L |
Dexter, Mich. |
C |
Chris Stephens |
Hillsdale |
Jr. |
R/R |
Grosse Pointe, Mich./Farmington |
RP |
Doug Fox |
Lake Erie |
So. |
L/L |
Parma, Ohio/Valley Forge |
1B |
Jae Leeworthy |
Lake Erie |
Jr. |
R/R |
Newton Falls, Ohio |
2B |
Michael Goodwin |
Northwood |
Sr. |
R/R |
Midland, Mich./Saginaw Valley State |
C |
Ryan Palmer |
Northwood |
Jr. |
R/R |
Saginaw, Mich./Nouvel |
OF |
Germaine McAlpine |
Ohio Dominican |
Sr. |
L/L |
Canton, Ohio/McKinley |
SS |
Tyler Zaidel |
Ohio Dominican |
Jr. |
R/R |
Cincinnati, Ohio/Bishop Fenwick |
OF |
Ryan Ermers |
Saginaw Valley State |
Jr. |
R/R |
Sterling Heights, Mich./Henry Ford |
SS |
Matt Hunt |
Saginaw Valley State |
Jr. |
R/R |
Howell, Mich./Concordia University |
OF |
Michael Dushane |
Tiffin |
Jr. |
R/R |
Blissfield, Mich./Defiance |
SS |
Val Helldobler |
Tiffin |
Jr. |
R/R |
Toledo, Ohio/St. John Jesuit |
SS |
Caleb Dalman |
Wayne State |
Sr. |
R/R |
Hudsonville, Mich. |
SP |
Alex Pierse |
Wayne State |
So. |
L/L |
Clinton Twp., Mich./De La Salle |