INDIANAPOLIS – Four organizations (ABCA/Rawlings, NCBWA, D2CCA, CoSIDA) awarded Great Midwest Athletic Conference baseball student-athletes various postseason honors as the 2018 playoffs plays out at the NCAA Championship in Cary, N.C.
With the sport split into two divisions, North and South, Hillsdale and Ohio Dominican emerged out of the North as two Great Midwest teams that qualified for the NCAA Midwest Regional in Springfield, Ill.
Ohio Dominican bounced back from a tough showing in the conference tournament to advance all the way into the NCAA Midwest Region final. Hillsdale earned the league’s automatic-qualifying bid after winning the Great Midwest Championship in Mason, Ohio.
Ohio Dominican and Kentucky Wesleyan were the conference regular-season champions for each respective division.
The Ohio Dominican tandem of junior catcher Colin Kaucher and senior first baseman Justin Childers earned NCAA All-American honors from the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) and the D2 Conference Commissioner’s Association (D2CCA).
Kaucher and Childers each earned D2CCA Third Team All-American recognition. Kaucher landed as a second-team NCBWA All-American pick and Childers was an honorable mention selection to the list.
By the end of the NCAA Midwest Regional, Kaucher was the league leader in batting average (.430) and RBI (66). He scored 54 runs, doubled 12 times and hit eight home runs in 47 games.
Childers, also named the D2CCA Midwest Region Player of the Year, was the Great Midwest Player of the Year and the recipient of the Great Midwest Male Collegiate Achievement Award. He batted .407, slugged 13 home runs, scored 76 runs and was the league leader in on-base percentage (.540).
Nine different players from the Great Midwest were named to the ABCA/Rawlings All-Midwest Region Team, including three on the first team and six on the second team.
Childers and Kaucher headlined the group while being joined by Kentucky Wesleyan junior center fielder Cody Bridges as a first-team pick. The second team consisted of single-season record home run holder Joseph Burke (Kentucky Wesleyan), Ethan Harrison (Trevecca) and Eric Conner (Walsh) as position players.
Second team all-region arms included two-time Great Midwest Pitcher of the Year Roscoe Blackburn (Malone), Eric Mullet (Malone) and Ohio Dominican reliever Brad Wilson.
Five players were D2CCA All-Midwest Region First-Team honorees with Kaucher, Childers, Bridges, Wilson and Mullet, being chosen. TNU’s Harrison was a second-team all-region award winner.
Childers, Kaucher and Blackburn, were also named Google Cloud Academic All-District First-Team selections by CoSIDA for their work on and off the field.