ROCK HILL, S.C. --- Six Tusculum student-athletes have been named to the 2017 All-South Atlantic Conference Baseball Team announced league officials Wednesday.
Third baseman John Topoleski and starting pitcher Ethan Carpenter were named to the All-SAC first team while first baseman Nick Lacina and starting pitcher Tim Hardy garnered second team recognition. Outfielder Jeremy Glore and second baseman Daulton Martin received honorable mention recognition to round out the Tusculum honorees.
Tusculum's six All-SAC representatives were the third most in the conference. SAC Champion Catawba had nine representatives on the All-Conference team, while runner-up Lincoln Memorial had eight honorees. Newberry was fourth with four representatives, while Mars Hill was fifth with three selections. Anderson, Coker and Carson-Newman had two each, while Lenoir-Rhyne and Wingate had one honoree each.
Topoleski, a senior from Lawrenceville, Ga., leads the Pioneers with his .373 batting average, which is ninth in the league. He returns to the All-SAC team after earning honorable mention recognition in his rookie season in 2014. He has totaled 56 hits this year including four doubles and two home runs to go along with his 33 RBI. He also leads the team in sacrifice bunts (7) and being hit by pitch (9).
He has hit safely in his last 10 games where he boasts a .432 batting (16-of-37).
Topoleski was also named to the 2017 SAC Gold Glove team at third base and honor he received in 2014. He has .925 field percentage at third where he has logged 75 fielding assists and 24 putouts in his 107 total fielding chances.
He has become one of the most durable and dependable third basemen in Tusculum history. His 202 career hits are tied for the fifth-most in school history and are the most by a TC third baseman. He also holds school records with his 35 career sacrifice bunts and his 30 times he's been hit by a pitch. He has scored 111 runs and driven in 113 RBI. Of his hit total, 27 have been doubles while also hitting five home runs with one triple.
Carpenter, a senior right-handed pitcher from Polkville, North Carolina, earns All-SAC honors for the first time in his career. It marks the third straight season and sixth time in the last seven years Tusculum has had a pitcher on the All-SAC first team.
Carpenter has a 6-3 record with a team-best 3.67 earned run average which is the fifth-lowest in the league. Of his 12 starts, he has recorded three complete games with a shutout. His 81 innings pitched are second on the conference, while his 83 strikeouts are tied for third amongst SAC hurlers and are 21st in the country. His 83 strikeouts are also tied for the sixth-most in a Tusculum single-season.
He has a 2-0 record in his last three starts with victories against sixth-ranked Tampa and tossed a three-hit complete game at Wingate last Friday. For his efforts against Wingate, he was named SAC and Southeast Region Pitcher of the Week. In his last three games, he has a 2.19 ERA while averaging eight strikeouts per outing, including a career-best 11 against Wingate.
Carpenter has also recorded wins against Bellarmine, Mars Hill, Newberry and Brevard. In the win over Mars Hill, he pitched a two-hit shutout in a 3-0 win over the Lions.
During his career at Tusculum he has a 21-12 record for the fifth-most wins in school history. His 223 career strikeouts are second in the TC record book, while his 48 career starts are the most by a Pioneer. His three career shutouts are third in Tusculum history, while his 267.2 innings pitched are the fourth-most in the Black and Orange.
Lacina, a senior from St. Paul, Minnesota, is fourth on the team with his .333 batting average, but he did most of his damage during conference play where he boasted a team-leading .387 average at the plate. The 2016 SAC All-Tournament and NCAA Southeast Regional All-Tournament standout has totaled 54 hits this year, including a team-best 12 doubles and five home runs to go along with 39 RBI. He has made 307 putouts and his .991 fielding percentage is one of the highest in the conference.
All five of his home runs have come against conference pitchers where he has a .656 slugging percentage in league play He also went errorless in his 24 conference starts as he accounted for 174 error free fielding chances.
Hardy, a sophomore left-hander from Monroe, North Carolina, finished second in the conference with his eight wins (16th in NCAA II) and his three complete games. He boasts and 8-3 record with a 3.84 ERA which is eighth in the conference. He is tied for the team-lead in strikeouts with Carpenter at 83 (3rd in SAC/21st in NCAA II), which are tied for the sixth-most in a TC single-season.
He opened the season going 7-0 in his first nine appearances, including eight starts. He has accounted for wins against Lynn, Coker, Mars Hill, Newberry Brevard, Anderson, along with victories against two nationally-ranked opponents in 18th-ranked Belmont Abbey and sixth-ranked Tampa. He recorded eight or more strikeouts on five occasions, including a season-high 10 strikeouts in back-to-back win over Mars Hill and Newberry.
Glore, a senior from Stone Mountain, Georgia, leads the Pioneers with his 48 runs scored, which are seventh in the league and 46th most in the nation. Glore is batting .370 this season, which is the second-highest average on the team and is 11th in the SAC and has hit safely in eight of his last nine games.
He leads the team with his 64 hits, including 11 doubles, two triples and a home run to go along with his 37 RBI and is 6-of-8 in stolen bases.
Martin, a freshman from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, has enjoyed an outstanding rookie campaign where he is batting .359 with 55 hits, 11 doubles, two home runs and 32 RBI. He currently leads the team in triples, walks (26) and on-base percentage (.467 – 8th in SAC).
He is one of the hottest hitters on the team of late as he has a six-game hitting streak where he is batting .571 going 12-of-21 at the plate. In his 45 outings, he has scored 31 runs and is second on the team with his 89 fielding assists.
Tusculum (27-18) finished fifth in the conference standings and will be the No. 5 seed in this week's Pilot/Flying J SAC Baseball Championship, which is being held Thursday through this Monday at Smokies Park in Kodak, Tennessee. The Pioneers will open against No. 8 seed Wingate in the tournament opener on Thursday at 4 p.m. Thursday's game will be a single-elimination game. The winner will advance to the double-elimination portion of the SAC Baseball Championship, which gets underway on Friday.
2017 All-South Atlantic Conference Baseball Team
First Team
OF – Luke Setzer, Catawba
OF – Logan Augustine, Lincoln Memorial
OF – Daymon Totherow, Newberry
1B – Timmy Wages, Lincoln Memorial
2B – Hunter Merrill, Mars Hill
SS – Tyler Adams, Lincoln Memorial
3B – John Topoleski, Tusculum
C – Zach Almond, Catawba
DH – Ben Herring, Newberry
SP – Thomas St. Clair, Lenoir-Rhyne
SP – Zack Kelly, Newberry
SP – Ethan Carpenter, Tusculum
RP – Bryan Blanton, Catawba
Second Team
OF – Ryan Addington, Carson-Newman
OF – Brett Brubaker, Mars Hill
OF – William Thomas, Anderson
1B – Nick Lacina, Tusculum
2B – Kyle Smith, Catawba
SS – Jeremy Simpson, Catawba
3B – Eric Kalman, Lincoln Memorial
C – Greg Jones, Carson-Newman
DH – Nick Coble, Catawba
SP – Hunter Shepherd, Catawba
SP –Tim Hardy, Tusculum
SP – Brandon Jean, Lincoln Memorial
RP – Griffin Hollifield, Coker
Honorable Mention
OF – Mason Ewers, Lincoln Memorial
OF – Malachi Hanes, Catawba
OF – Jeremy Glore, Tusculum
1B – Chance Bowden, Catawba
2B – Daulton Martin, Tusculum
SS – Tyler Miller, Anderson
3B – Brett Langhorne, Lincoln Memorial
C – Russell Clark, Lincoln Memorial
DH – Bradley Brown, Wingate
SP – Forrest Arnold, Coker
SP – Zac Brown, Mars Hill
SP – Evan Estridge, Newberry
RP – Dominic Morabito, Lincoln Memorial
SAC Gold Glove Team
RF – Daymon Totherow, Newberry
CF – Danton Hyman, Newberry
LF – Marcus Shoemaker, Lenoir-Rhyne
1B – Chance Bowden, Catawba
2B – Cody Ezzell, Newberry
SS – Jeremy Simpson, Catawba
3B – John Topoleski, Tusculum
C – Jeff Sneed, Newberry
P – Zac Brown, Mars Hill
SAC Player of the Year: Luke Setzer, Catawba
SAC Pitcher of the Year: Thomas St. Clair, Lenoir-Rhyne
SAC Freshman of the Year: Hunter Shepherd, Catawba
SAC Co-Coach of the Year: Jim Gantt, Catawba
SAC Co-Coach of the Year: Jeff Sziksai, Lincoln Memorial
SAC Statistical Champions
Team Batting Average – Catawba (.334)
Team Slugging Percentage – Catawba (.559)
Team On-Base Percentage – Lincoln Memorial (.415)
Team Doubles Per Game – Catawba (2.45)
Team Triples Per Game – Lenoir-Rhyne (0.41)
Team Home Runs Per Game – Catawba (1.64)
Team RBIs Per Game – Tusculum (7.11)
Team Stolen Bases Per Game – Mars Hill (1.69)
Team Earned Run Average – Tusculum (4.32)
Team Strikeouts Per Game – Lenoir-Rhyne (10.6)
Batting Average – Luke Setzer, Catawba (.425)
On-Base Percentage – Timmy Wages, Lincoln Memorial (.516)
Slugging Percentage – Zach Almond, Catawba (.736)
Home Runs Per Game – Zach Almond, Catawba (0.34)
RBIs Per Game – Zach Almond, Catawba (1.27)
Runs Scored Per Game – Logan Augustine, Lincoln Memorial (1.40)
Doubles Per Game – Zach Almond, Catawba (0.44)
Triples Per Game – Justin Dean, Lenoir-Rhyne (0.14)
Stolen Bases Per Game – Hunter Merrill, Mars Hill (0.65)
Earned Run Average – Griffin Hollifield, Coker (1.50)
Strikeouts Per Nine Innings – Thomas St. Clair, Lenoir-Rhyne (13.38)
Pitching Victories – Thomas St. Clair, Lenoir-Rhyne (9)
