Student Princes Land Five on ABCA All-American Teams, Wooster Adds Two
Those of us who have been blessed with the opportunity to follow college baseball in Ohio this spring know what a treat it was to watch Heidelberg take their rising program to its highest level with a trip to Appleton for the Division III World Series. Along the way Coach Palm’s team won the Ohio Athletic Conference regular season, and tournament champions, won the Mideast Regional, and saw individuals pick up every possible honor.
Nearly a month after their season concluded, we further see proof of just how special the group of student-athletes who call Peaceful Valley home truly is.
The American Baseball Coaches Association in part with Rawlings released their 2010 All-American teams that have five Student Princes on the first and second teams, a number that doubles the next closet school.
Receiving first team honors were senior catcher Steve Decker, junior third baseman Willie Brechun, and sophomore outfielder Ricardo Lizacano. The trio turns into a quintet when adding junior shortstop Jason Lash, and classmate relief pitcher Andy Lowe. While it is certainly possible to make an argument for even more players to receive All-American accolades from Heidelberg, the third team is void of any Student Princes, but not of Buckeye State products.
Forming the nation’s top middle-infield combination, Wooster senior second baseman Matthew Johnson received third-team honors alongside double-play partner junior shortstop Greg Van Horn.
The entire list of Rawling/ABCA All-Americans can be found here
The All-American awards come on the heels of the ABCA/Rawlings All-Mideast Region teams where Heidelberg placed six on the first team, and eight overall.
Filed under: Division III
Congratulations to all of the award winners, but they will all tell you that their awards represent the team aspect of the game. These are a swell group of men that stress the team concept of the game and will usually give credit to their team mates. There are no egos on this team and they will do anything for the betterment of the team. Heidelberg will lose two players from this years squad, Steve Decker, the everyday catcher, who will be sorrily missed , and Everette Thomas,who has pitched some fantastic innings for us. We wish them the best of luck in their post baseball future.