May 22, 2008
B-W Baseball Team Raises More Than $1,000 to Strike Out Cancer on Senior Day
Despite losing its last two home games of the 2008 season, the Baldwin-Wallace College baseball team and its fans still had plenty to be proud of at the Senior Day doubleheader against Malone College at Heritage Field on May 1.
During the pregame festivities, the Yellow Jackets seniors — Shaun Slater, Kevin Shenker, Nick Radca, Nate Luken and Jerry Breedlove — were introduced to an appreciative Senior Day crowd and applauded for their hard work and dedication to the B-W baseball program.
The Senior Day doubleheader was also a “Strike Out Cancer” fundraising event organized by assistant coach Adam Howard and his wife, Jeanette. Throughout the afternoon, the Yellow Jackets sold commemorative T-shirts and freshly-grilled hot dogs to raise money for the KDH Hodgkin’s Disease Foundation. They also invited B-W alumnus and cancer survivor Phil Lapse to throw out the first pitch and sit with them in the dugout as their special guest.
By the end of the day, the Jackets and their fans had raised more than $1,000 to help fund research towards a cure for Hodgkin’s disease.
B-W assistant football coach Ian Shoemaker volunteered to take pictures of the Senior Day activities for the Online Almanac, and you can check out more of his snapshots in the 2008 B-W Baseball Senior Day Photo Set. Thanks, Coach Shoemaker!
May 19, 2008
Luken and Kidd Named to Academic All-District Baseball Team
Baldwin-Wallace College senior second baseman Nate Luken and junior center fielder Cody Kidd have been named to ESPN The Magazine’s 2008 Academic All–District IV baseball team.
The Academic All–District IV team is selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America and honors outstanding ballplayers from Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama who have a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.2.
Luken and Kidd were selected to the first team of the district’s College Division, which includes players from NCAA Division II and Division III schools and the NAIA.
Luken had his best season as a Yellow Jacket this year, batting .321 with 20 runs scored and 18 runs batted in and posting a .969 fielding average. He was a first team Academic All–Ohio Athletic Conference pick as a junior and won B-W’s Guy Fisher Award for Academic Excellence in 2006. His numerous academic accolades also include the dean’s list and membership in the Alpha Lambda, Chi Sigma Alpha, Dayton C. Miller and Pi Gamma Mu honor societies, as well as the J. Edgar Hoover Foundation Criminal Justice Award. He finished his academic career at B-W with a 3.86 GPA in criminal justice and will start law school at The Ohio State University this fall.
Kidd, who plans to attend medical school after his senior season, carries a 3.80 GPA in biology. He’s on the dean’s list and is a member of Alpha Lamda. He was a second team Academic All-District pick last year. This season, the All-OAC and Academic All-OAC center fielder hit .387 and led the Jackets with 60 hits, 34 runs, four triples and 13 stolen bases while making just two errors.
[ B-W Baseball Academic All--District IV Selections ]
May 7, 2008
Riley Kreisher Named OAC Hitter of the Week
Baldwin-Wallace College junior first baseman Riley Kreisher was named the Ohio Athletic Conference Hitter of the Week on Monday after batting .500 last week and tying the Yellow Jackets’ record for doubles in a season.
Kreisher had 10 hits in 20 at bats in the Jackets’ final five games of the season. He belted five doubles and a home run for a .950 slugging percentage. He also scored four runs, knocked in five and posted a .545 on-base percentage.
His season-ending outburst of two-base hits gave him a team-leading 18 for the year and tied the school record set by Pat Shannon in 2003. He also led the team with 18 walks, 29 runs batted in, a pair of home runs and a .553 slugging percentage. He tied with junior center fielder Cody Kidd for the lead in triples with four.
[ B-W Baseball OAC Players of the Week ]
May 5, 2008
B-W Baseball Team Sweeps Wilmington to Finish .500
The Baldwin-Wallace College baseball team swept Wilmington College in an Ohio Athletic Conference doubleheader yesterday and finished its season at .500 with a record of 19–19–1.
The Yellow Jackets went into Wilmington at 17–19–1 after losing back-to-back, non-conference match-ups with Hiram College and Malone College, but they bounced back thanks to junior pitcher Jim Jaskowak’s second shutout of the season and an unstoppable streak of hitting by senior left fielder Shaun Slater.
Jaskowak got the Yellow Jackets back on track by holding the Quakers scoreless on four hits in game one, picking up his fourth complete game of the season and improving his record to 5–2 with a team-leading 4.73 earned run average. Slater went 4-for-4 with a double in the opener, and then hit safely in his first three at bats of game two. He finished the day with eight hits in nine at bats and rocketed 35 points to a .409 batting average.
With the sweep, the Jackets ended up tied for 6th place in the OAC at 9–9, two wins short of the fourth and final spot in this year’s conference championship tournament.
For all the details on last week’s games, including box scores and updated statistics, check out the B-W Baseball Home Page.
