Big South Announces 2017 Baseball Annual Awards
LEXINGTON, S.C. (www.BigSouthSports.com) – Liberty sophomore outfielder D.J. Artis (Greensboro, N.C.) and Radford junior hurler Zack Ridgely (Baltimore, Md.) have been voted the 2017 Big South Baseball Player of the Year and Pitcher of the Year, respectively, by the league’s head coaches, it was announced this evening at a special awards presentation. In addition, Winthrop head coach Tom Riginos was voted Coach of the Year, while Eagles’ pitcher Colten Rendon (Jupiter, Fla.) was selected Big South Freshman of the Year. Campbell utility player Drew Butler (Rockingham, N.C.) was voted Scholar-Athlete of the Year by the Big South’s sports information directors.
Artis, a three-time Big South Player of the Week honoree this year, is the first Liberty Flame to be voted Player of the Year since 2014. He concluded the regular-season as the Big South’s leader in batting average (.360), runs scored (55), walks (59) and on-base percentage (.531), and ranked second with 22 stolen bases and fifth with 45 RBI. Artis leads the nation in walks and walks per game (1.18) and is second in NCAA Division I in OBP. His 97 total bases and 63 hits also rank among the Big South Top 10. In conference action, Artis batted .388 to finish second among the leaders, in addition to a league-high .568 on-base percentage, 31 runs scored and 35 walks, plus 11 steals (2nd), 26 RBI (4th) and 33 hits (T-5th). He received six first-place votes and 23 points in the voting, ahead of Gardner-Webb outfielder Danny Sullivan (two first-place votes and 18 points) and Winthrop outfielder Anthony Paulsen (one first-place vote and 12 points).
Ridgely becomes the first Highlander to win Big South Pitcher of the Year honors since 2012 when current Chicago Cub Eddie Butler won the award. Ridgely won six games during the regular-season -- tied for second in the conference, and was a three-time Pitcher of the Week selection. He posted a career-high 80 strikeouts in 89.2 innings of work (8.03 K/9) -- against just 10 walks, and finished with a 2.91 earned run average. In Big South games, Ridgely was 4-2 with a 2.13 ERA and 53 strikeouts in 55.0 innings pitched, and gave up just six walks. He allowed three hits-or-less in five of his 14 starts -- all wins and outings six innings-or-longer. Ridgely held opponents to a .218 batting average, ranks 11th nationally with a 1.00 walks per 9 innings ratio, and tallied two 10-strikeout efforts against Big South members. He did not allow a run in four outings, including last Thursday’s 6-inning, 1-hit effort against Winthrop. The lefthander finished with four first-place votes and 17 points in the voting, just ahead of Winthrop’s Nate Pawelczyk (four first-place votes and 15 points).
Riginos earns his first Big South Coach of the Year honor after leading the Eagles to their first outright regular-season championship since 2003. His squad won the Big South with a 17-7 record after winning seven of eight league series -- including three sweeps. Winthrop was also one of just two teams to win 30 games during the regular-season. The Eagles led the Big South with a .276 team batting average, was third in the conference with a 4.34 earned run average and second with 15 saves. Winthrop was the top hitting and pitching team in league games with a .287 batting average and 2.80 ERA, in addition to bests of three shutouts and nine saves. The Eagles had two five-game win streaks in 2017 and collected two non-conference wins at Creighton. Riginos collected seven first-place votes and 26 points, ahead of Presbyterian’s Elton Pollock (one first-place vote and 18 points) and Liberty’s Scott Jackson (one first-place vote and 10 points)
Rendon becomes Winthrop’s first Big South Freshman of the Year honoree since 2006 and fourth overall. He tied for the overall league lead with seven wins, was fifth in the league with 82.0 innings pitched, allowed the second-fewest walks (9) among Big South pitchers with 50+ innings, ranked sixth with a 3.07 ERA and posted seven total starts without allowing an earned run. A Pitcher of the Week honoree on May 15, Rendon finished conference play with a 6-1 record and 1.17 ERA in eight starts on the hill (tops on the team). He held Big South foes to a .199 batting average with a 6.50 hits per 9 innings ratio, 32 strikeouts and just five walks allowed (0.83 per 9 innings). Rendon received six first-place votes and 20 points, ahead of Campbell outfielder Matthew Barefoot (three first-place votes and 16 points).
Butler becomes the first Campbell player to be voted Baseball Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Earlier this month, Butler was named a CoSIDA Academic All-District III honoree and was among the initial candidates for the 2017 Baseball Senior CLASS Award. He boasts a 3.71 cumulative grade point average as an economics major, and closed the 2017 regular season as the Big South’s leader with 38 stolen bases while batting .318.
The Conference also announced the 2017 All-Conference and All-Academic teams on Monday evening, which are listed below. The All-Conference teams are voted by the head coaches, while the All-Academic Team consists of one student-athlete from each institution that meets the criteria and is nominated and selected by the league’s sports information directors.
2017 BIG SOUTH CONFERENCE BASEBALL ALL-CONFERENCE TEAMS
FIRST-TEAM ALL-CONFERENCE
OF - D.J. Artis, Soph., Liberty
OF - Danny Sullivan, Sr., Gardner-Webb
OF - Anthony Paulsen, R-Sr., Winthrop
INF - Sammy Taormina, Sr., Liberty
INF - Collin Thacker, Sr., Gardner-Webb
INF - Mitch Spires, Jr., Winthrop
INF - Jason Miller, R-Soph., Charleston Southern
C - TJ Richardson, Jr., Presbyterian
UTL - Danny Hrbek, Sr., Radford
DH - Cole Hallum, R-Sr., Campbell
SP - Zack Ridgely, LHP, Jr., Radford
SP - Colten Rendon, RHP, Fr., Winthrop
SP - Nate Pawelczyk, RHP, Soph., Winthrop
RP - Kyle Zurak, RHP, Sr., Radford
SECOND-TEAM ALL-CONFERENCE
OF - Matthew Barefoot, R-Fr., Campbell
OF - Jeff Hahs, Jr., Campbell
OF - Josh Greene, Sr., High Point
INF - Blake Schunk, Jr., High Point
INF - Spencer Horwitz, Fr., Radford
INF - Glen Casaceli, Sr., Presbyterian
INF - Kyle Butler, R-Soph., Radford
C - Jonathan Gonzalez, Sr., Radford
UTL - Drew Butler, Sr., Campbell
DH - Tim Mansfield, Sr., High Point
SP - Drew Daczkowski, RHP, Fr., High Point
SP - Evan Mitchell, RHP, Sr., Liberty
SP - Cody Wager, RHP, Sr., Longwood
RP - Cody Smith, RHP, Jr., Charleston Southern
HONORABLE MENTION ALL-CONFERENCE
RP - Ryan Hedrick, RHP, Jr., Presbyterian
RP - Daniel Johnson, LHP, Jr., Charleston Southern
OF - Joe Tietjen, Sr., UNC Asheville
INF - Aaron Miller, Fr., Charleston Southern
SP - Brian Kehner, LHP, Sr., Presbyterian
ALL-ACADEMIC TEAM
Drew Butler, Sr., UTL, Campbell
Daniel Johnson, Jr., LHP, Charleston Southern
Danny Sullivan, Sr., OF, Gardner-Webb
Andrew Gottfried, Soph., RHP, High Point
Matt Allen, Jr., C, Liberty
Zach Potojecki, Jr., RHP, Longwood
AJ Priaulx, Jr., 1B, Presbyterian College
Kyle Palmer, Jr., LHP, Radford
Joe Tietjen, Sr., OF, UNC Asheville
Hunter Lipscomb, Soph., OF, Winthrop
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
D.J. Artis, OF, Soph., Liberty
PITCHER OF THE YEAR
Zack Ridgely, LHP, Jr., Radford
FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR
Colten Rendon, RHP, Fr., Winthrop
COACH OF THE YEAR
Tom Riginos, Winthrop
SCHOLAR-ATHLETE OF THE YEAR
Drew Butler, Sr., UTL, Campbell