Courtesy of GoBonnies.com
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. – The 2017 season will rank as one of the top years in program history for the St. Bonaventure baseball team – and the year got a bit more memorable Wednesday with the announcement of the Atlantic 10 Baseball Awards. St. Bonaventure had six players recognized and also took home half of the league’s major awards.
The six player honorees are the most in a single season for the Bonnies in team history.
Junior Aaron Phillips earned Pitcher of the Year honors and head coach Larry Sudbrook received his third Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year award. Junior Cole Peterson picked up first team accolades at shortstop while classmate David Hollins garnered second team recognition at third base. Freshmen Casey Vincent and Donovan Moffat each were picked to the All-Rookie Team and senior T.J. Baker landed on the All-Academic Team.
Phillips turned in a remarkable regular season in quite possibly the most impressive campaign by any Bonnies pitcher in team history. He posted a 9-1 record with a 2.77 ERA, striking out 81 batters in 94.1 innings of work while limiting opponents to a .207 batting average. His numbers were even better in Atlantic 10 play – Phillips won six of seven decisions with a 2.45 ERA, striking out 60 in 62.1 innings and holding A-10 batters to a .183 batting average.
The native of Cheektowaga was the only A-10 pitcher to post a sub-2.80 ERA and hold opponents to under a .230 batting average in over 50 innings of work this season. He led the league in wins and fewest hits per nine innings (6.5) while ranking second in strikeouts, fifth in ERA and sixth in WHIP (1.14). One of nine pitchers in the nation to win his first nine decisions, he registered seven or more strikeouts in six of eight A-10 starts while working eight or more innings in conference starts. With the award, he becomes the second Bonnies pitcher to ever take Atlantic 10 Pitcher of the Year honors and the first since Kyle Johnson did so in 2001.
Sudbrook, who was previously Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year in 2000 and 2006, brought the Bonnies back to the top of the conference in his 32nd year at the helm. After being picked ninth in the A-10 Preseason Poll, the Bonnies bested their preseason prognostication by six spots, most of any team. St. Bonaventure won 26 total games to rank fifth in program history. The club also racked up 15 Atlantic 10 wins to stand third all-time – with one of the two seasons ranking higher being when the league played an additional conference series each year. Sudbrook added to his amazing career resume by registering his 300th Atlantic 10 victory last month and finished the regular season with 686 total wins.
Peterson receives all-conference honors for the second year in a row, taking first team recognition for the first time. Again one of the region’s top defensive shortstops, Peterson enjoyed a career season at the plate this spring by leading the Bonnies in a number of offensive categories including batting average (.341), runs (40), hits (62), on-base percentage (.417), doubles (15) and stolen bases (24). He tied for the league lead in stolen bags and posted 19 multi-hit games including nine three-hit games. In Atlantic 10 play, he boasted a .376 batting average along with a .444 on-base percentage. Defensively, the Johnsonburg, Pa. native turned 20 double plays and finished with a .963 fielding percentage. For his career, he has started 142 consecutive games at short.
Hollins made an immediate impact in his first season with the program after transferring from junior college. He hit .294 overall including a .304 mark in conference play, pacing the team in home runs (eight) and RBI (31) while slugging .557 against A-10 pitching. The Orchard Park native started 45 of 46 games at the hot corner and tied the program single game records for hits and RBI in a 6-for-6 game while driving in eight runs during a March contest at Davidson. He also captured league Player of the Week accolades twice.
Vincent and Moffat each were spotlighted as two of the league’s top freshmen after playing vital roles on the Bonnies pitching staff.
A native of Russell, Pa., Vincent won a job in the conference starting rotation and was vital to the Bonnies after the team suffered a pair of injuries to veteran starters early in the season. Overall, he went 2-4 with a 4.99 ERA and 51 strikeouts in 70.1 innings of work while fanning 32 batters in 49.2 A-10 innings. He worked six or more innings in six of his eight Atlantic 10 starts.
Moffat, a product of Pavilion, N.Y., set the Bonnies record for appearances in a season with 27, going 3-1 with a 3.96 ERA. He notched a team-high four saves and went 2-0 with a 2.63 ERA in 11 A-10 games. The left-handed specialist kept lefty hitters off-balance all season, allowing just one hit to left-handed batters during the year.
Baker receives his second consecutive All-Academic Team selection for his work on the field and in the classroom. The accounting major produced a 3.867 cumulative GPA while taking over a new role for the Bonnies. A reliever last year, the Ontario native split time at first base and designated hitter this year and immediately became a power bat in the Bona lineup. Baker hit .281 with six homers and 30 RBI and led the team with nine multi-RBI games while delivering a .315 average with runners in scoring position including 13 two-out RBI. He also threw 18.2 innings on the mound.
St. Bonaventure (26-20, 15-8) earned the No. 3 seed in the Atlantic 10 Tournament held at Saint Louis University.
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