Six Earn Place on ABCA/Rawlings All-Region Team

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Six Horizon League student-athletes were selected to the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA)/Rawlings All-Mideast Teams, the organization announced on Wednesday. Selected were Milwaukee catcher Daulton Varsho and pitcher Brian Keller; Wright State pitcher Jesse Scholtens and outfielder Ryan Fucci; UIC second baseman David Cronin; and Oakland shortstop Mike Brosseau.

The teams are voted on by members of the American Baseball Coaches Association and the process is led by the ABCA NCAA Division I All-America Committee.

Milwaukee’s Varsho was honored on the Mideast First Team after an impressive 2016 campaign that also saw him named Horizon League Player of the Year. He led the league in numerous categories, including his .381 average, .610 slugging percentage and 88 hits.

Keller earned Mideast Second Team Honors following a memorable season in which he was named Horizon League Pitcher of the Year and was drafted by the New York Yankees. He went 10-3 with a 3.10 ERA, breaking school marks for strikeouts and innings pitched in a season and career strikeouts as well.

Wright State’s Scholtens was a First Team All-Horizon League honoree this season as he led the league in starts with 16 and in innings pitched with 109.2 while tying for the league lead in wins with a record of 10-1.  He finished second in strikeouts with 95 and third in both earned run average at 2.95 and in opposing batting average at .220.  In league play, he went 6-1 with a 2.17 ERA and 55 strikeouts in 62.1 innings.

The Horizon League Pitcher of the Week on March 14, Scholtens pitched the first perfect game in school history on March 11 with a 1-0 win at Dayton, striking out a career-high 12 in the process.  He struck out nine at Youngstown State on April 22 and eight on three other occasions, including at North Carolina State on February 26.

In his senior year with the Raiders, Fucci was a First Team All-Horizon League selection in 2016, hitting .326 with a team-best 11 home runs, 64 RBI and 26 stolen bases.  He finished first in the Horizon League in home runs, RBI and stolen bases, second in total bases (124), fourth in slugging percentage (.525), fifth in runs scored (51) and seventh in hits (77) and on-base percentage (.412).

Fucci was named to the NCAA Louisville Regional All-Tournament Team as he hit .333 with a team-high five RBI in four games.

Cronin, playing his redshirt sophomore season with UIC, led the Flames with a .360 batting average, keying the lineup from the top spot. Cronin served as a catalyst for the offense with 80 hits, including 15 that went for extra bases. At one point Cronin hit safely in 13 consecutive contests, while reaching base safely in 25 games in a row; both streaks led the Flames this season. Cronin tied for fourth among Horizon League players in hits, while ranking third in batting average.

He also led the Flames and ranked in the conference’s top 10 in total bases (101) and stolen bases (16). He ranked second on the team and third in the conference with eight sacrifice bunts. As a freshman in 2015, Cronin was a member of the Horizon League all-Newcomer Team.

In his senior year with Oakland, Brosseau  was selected to the All-Horizon League first team this season. He was tops in the Horizon League in on-base percentage (.456) and ranked second in both home runs (10) and slugging percentage (.571), while he also finished top-10 in the conference in batting average (.354) and runs scored (49). In addition, he led the Golden Grizzlies this year in walks (27), stolen bases (8) and was second in RBIs (33). He was named Horizon League Batter of the Week on May 2.

2016 Mideast-ABCA/Rawlings All-Region Teams
NCAA Div. I Mideast All-Region First Team
C Daulton Varsho So. Milwaukee
1B Caleb Stayton Jr. Ball State
2B Aaron Bossi Sr. Marshalll
3B Nick Sergakis Sr. Ohio State
SS Greg Kaiser Sr. IPFW
OF Alex Call Jr. Ball State
OF Joel Booker Sr. Iowa
OF Ronnie Dawson Jr. Ohio State
DH Zarley Zalewski Sr. Kent State
P Eric Lauer Jr. Kent State
P Keegan Akin Jr. Western Michigan
P Jesse Scholtens Sr. Wright State
P Cody Sedlock Jr. Illinois
RP Dakota Mekkes So. Michigan State
 
NCAA Div. I Mideast All-Region Second Team
C Austin Athmann Jr. Minnesota
1B Jordan Zimmerman Jr. Michigan State
2B David Cronin So. UIC
3B Tyler Ratliff So. Marshall
SS Mike Brosseau Sr. Oakland
OF Vinny Mallaro Jr. Buffalo
OF Cody Bruder Sr. Michigan
OF Ryan Fucci Sr. Wright State
DH Matt Fiedler Jr. Minnesota
P Kyle Hart Sr. Indiana
P Tanner Tully Jr. Ohio State
P Brian Keller Sr. Milwaukee
RP Jack Anderson Sr. Penn State