Baseball All-Conference Team Announced

5.7.19

2019 All-Conference Baseball Team (PDF)


MASON, Ohio 
– Inside the auditorium at Prasco Park laboratories, the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Baseball All-Conference Team was unveiled with all eight playoff teams in attendance on Tuesday evening. 
 
The championship banquet signified the night before the start of this year's conference tournament at Prasco Park and Legacy Field as teams navigate a tricky road to hopefully finish on top of the double-elimination bracket. 
 
The regular season is long, road trips and practices are a grind, weather is unpredictable and making the postseason is a gratifying feeling. 
 
The coaches from the Great Midwest rewarded those student-athletes around the league with selections to the first team, second team, honorable mention team, in addition to spotlighting individual award winners. 
 
As the league continues to expand, making the all-conference team is that much more difficult as players around the conference showcase their considerable skill sets. 
 
Sixteen spots were position based on the first and second team while an additional 26 student-athlete picks were honorable mention team recipients.
 
The Great Midwest Player of the Year was Walsh junior corner infielder Andrew Czech. Czech received an overwhelming amount of support from the coaches in the voting as the top offensive player in the league.
 
The lefty slugger contended for a batting title while finishing second in the Great Midwest in batting average (.414). He was the league leader in RBI with 62 and finished second in home runs with 17. 
 
Czech also tied for third in hits and was the conference player of the week once in the 2019 season. 
 
The Great Midwest Pitcher of the Year was Kentucky Wesleyan fireballer Devin Smith, a junior transfer who was dominant in his first year on the scene. The righty tied for the league lead in wins (8) and topped all players in strikeouts with 86. 
 
Among qualified starters, he was the Great Midwest's best in ERA with a 1.74 mark against him in over 67 innings tossed. He went the distance for three complete games and recorded two shutouts while also being named conference pitcher of the week three times. 
 
Earning the distinction of batting king and Great Midwest Freshman of the Year was Cedarville's Payton Eeles, a talented rookie second baseman who also earned a coveted spot on the all-conference first team.

Eeles shined in a sample size of 46 games and batted .424, the sixth-highest mark in a single season in conference history to pace all players this spring. 
 
He set the tone for the Yellow Jackets with 13 doubles and a pair of triples while also scoring 41 runs. 
 
After winning the regular-season conference title, Malone skipper Tom Crank was voted by his peers as the Great Midwest Coach of the Year. Crank has the Pioneers in prime position to make a deep playoff run with the No. 1 overall seed in this year's tournament bracket.