Baseball All-SCAC Awards Released; Stickler named All-SCAC 2nd Team
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – The Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) announced the 2017 All-Conference Baseball Teams on Friday after the opening round of the SCAC Tournament. The University of Dallas baseball team had four players receive recognition – each for the first time in their careers.
Highlighting the quartet was Jordan Stickler on the All-SCAC Second Team for outfield. The sophomore emerged as the top hitter in the Crusaders lineup this season. He reached base in 39-of-40 games, including a stretch of 31 in a row to complete the regular season. Stickler recorded a hit in 26 games to match a team-high 53 hits. His batting average of .344 led all hitters and the centerfielder also drew 30 walks for second on the squad. Stickler stole 24 bases and ranked second in the conference just three behind the leader.
Seth Hanson (Apache Junction, Ariz.), Nathan Patton (McKinney, Texas) and Abraham Griesbauer (Troy, Mo.) rounded out the group of Crusaders earning all-conference recognition with nods on the All-SCAC Honorable Mentions list.
Hanson tied Stickler with a team-high 43 hits. He clobbered 10 of them for doubles, which led the team and was the first time a player reached double-digits in that category since 2013. Hanson primarily hit in the number three spot of the order and in his first season with Dallas performed well by etching a .314 batting average for second on the team (at least 100 Abs). He also drove in 31 runs to lead the Crusaders. Since 2010, only he joins two other players to have knocked in at least 31 runners. Trevor Keele did it in 2014 with 46 and David Rettinger had 31 in 2011. Hanson tied second on the team with four home runs.
Patton was a true freshman that also witnessed his batting average soar over .300 with a .310-clip. Patton rounded out the top three hitters with 26 hits. The third baseman punched nine doubles (2nd on team) and drove in 22 runs (2nd on team). Patton did support one of the longest active hitting streaks this campaign with seven being his longest span from March 29th to April 9th. He combined for 12 hits during that stretch and ended the campaign with hits in 11-of-13 games counting that spurt.
Finally, Griesbauer was the team's lone pitcher to receive an all-conference award this season. The left-hander made a team-high and personal-high 17 appearances. 16 of them came out of the bullpen, which also tied a team-most. Griesbauer went 3-3 with a 4.04 ERA. He threw 35.2 innings with 34.1 coming out of the pen. The junior fanned a career-high 25 guys and walked seven.