2018 Great Midwest All-Conference Baseball Team (PDF)


MASON, Ohio – A total of 57 student-athletes from 12 institutions were announced as selections to the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Baseball All-Conference Team during the traditional championship banquet on Tuesday night.
 
The championship banquet was conducted at PRASCO Park with guest speaker Frank Tanana providing the evening entertainment before the start of the conference tournament on Wednesday
 
Tanana was a southpaw starting pitcher and a former first-round draft pick of the California Angels in 1973 who spent 20 years at the major league level. He told student-athletes stories from his playing days and wished everyone the best of luck moving forward.
 
As voted upon by the league’s coaches, 16 selections were on the first team, 17 were honored on the second team and an additional 24 were named to the honorable mention team.
 
All eight teams that qualified for the Great Midwest Championship were in attendance as conference commissioner Tom Daeger provided the opening marks and presented the awards.
 
Individual awards were also announced as the Great Midwest Pitcher of the Year, Great Midwest Player of the Year, Great Midwest Freshman of the Year and Great Midwest Coach of the Year were unveiled.
 
Repeating as Great Midwest Pitcher of the Year was Malone left-handed starter Roscoe Blackburn, who earned the same hardware for the 2017 season. Blackburn limited opposing hitters to a .206 average, tops in the league, while compiling an 8-2 record with a 2.25 ERA in 11 games started.
 
He had four complete games and logged three shutouts while striking out 73 hitters in 84 innings pitched.
 
Leading the league in a multitude of categories was mashing Ohio Dominican first baseman Justin Childers, who carried the vote for Great Midwest Player of the Year. The senior corner infielder and 2017 NCAA batting king led all Great Midwest players in batting average, runs scored, total bases, on-base percentage, slugging percentage and triples.
 
He hit .443 in 42 games while legging out 18 doubles and slugging 11 home runs while driving in 43. The Pickerington, Ohio, native and NCAA All-American helped lead the Panthers as a team in batting average.
 
Also from Ohio Dominican was Great Midwest Coach of the Year Christopher Antonides, who has guided the Panthers into national prominence in the NCBWA rankings. His program is positioned well to qualify for the NCAA Championship Midwest Regional for a deep postseason run. ODU was the North Division regular-season champion and the top divisional seed going into the conference tournament with a 32-13 overall record and 18-7 league mark. Five of his players were also on the all-conference first team (Childers, Colin Kaucher, Joey Machuga, Cody Paterniti, Brad Wilson).
 
Malone also celebrated the Great Midwest Freshman of the Year award that was presented to rookie Turner Hill. Hill helped the Pioneers to the No. 2 seed in the North Division and doubled as a selection to the all-conference second team.
 
Hill led Malone with a .357 batting average and contributed 21 RBI and eight extra-base hits as a starting outfielder.
 
First base, among others, was a position of exceptional depth up and down the league as Childers commanded the first-team vote while Kentucky Wesleyan’s Joseph Burke (set a single-season conference record with 19 HR) was on the second team tied with Walsh’s Austin Czech.
 
All members of the first will be competing in the Great Midwest Baseball Championship bracket for the next few days. The first four games, starting at noon ET, will be streamed live on the Great Midwest Digital Network tomorrow from PRASCO Park.