Drury, USI, UW-Parkside Earn Major GLVC Baseball Postseason Honors

5/7/2014 9:00:00 PM

Jeff Smith, Assistant Commissioner

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EVANSVILLE, Ind.  – The Great Lakes Valley Conference announced Wednesday that Drury University seniors Nick Thimesch and Will Landsheft have been named the 2014 GLVC Player and Pitcher of the Year, respectively.  The two conference standouts were selected by the league coaches and recognized for their efforts at an awards reception that preceded the 2014 GLVC Baseball Championship Tournament, which begins on Thursday in Evansville, Ind.  In addition, University of Wisconsin-Parkside pitcher Mario Samuel was named the GLVC Freshman of the Year, while University of Southern Indiana skipper Tracy Archuleta was recognized by his peers as GLVC Coach of the Year.  A total of 65 student-athletes from both the GLVC East and West Divisions were also recognized as All-Conference honorees.

Thimesch is the first Drury standout to have ever earned the league’s top honor.  Having started in all 48 games this season, Thimesch led the conference with a .467 batting average, some 0.56 percentage points ahead of the second-best hitter in the league.  His efforts improved in conference play as he also led the league at the plate by hitting at a .484 clip in 34 GLVC contests.  The outfielder posted a conference-high 86 hits on the season, scored the second-most runs (50), was second in total bases (105), and third in runs batted in (46) and stolen bases (29).  In addition, the Marshalltown, Iowa, native was one of two West Division and one of three players overall unanimously selected to the All-Conference First Team.   

Thimesch’s teammate, Landsheft, is also the first Drury player to earn the conference’s top pitching award.  The senior starter ranked first in the GLVC with eight wins (8-2) and an opposition batting average of .195, while holding the second-best earned run average of 1.24 over the course of 65.1 innings of work.  Landsheft also boasted the fifth-best total of 64 strikeouts on the year, 27 of which were looking – a number that rated second overall among conference pitchers.   The Bixby, Okla., native’s average of 6.20 hits allowed per game topped the league charts, while his marks of 1.65 runs and 8.82 strikeouts per game were second and third in the league, respectively.

Samuel is the second Ranger newcomer to earn GLVC Freshman of the Year as Casey Garms earned the same honor 10 years ago in 2004.  In his first year on the mound for UW-Parkside, Samuel finished with 46 strikeouts to rank eighth in the league and recorded an opposing batting average of .225, which was ninth-best among GLVC pitchers this season.  Just this past week, the Bolingbrook, Ill., native registered a GLVC game-high 13 strikeouts against McKendree on May 3.  In 10 outings, he owned a 5-4 record with five complete games in 65.0 innings pitched.

Archuleta was honored by his peers for the second time in his career, the first of which came in 2011.  The USI skipper picked up his 300th win with the Screaming Eagles this past weekend and now owns a USI record of 301-146 (.673) in seven-plus seasons, and is 439-270 (.619) in 12-plus years as a head coach.  After missing the past two GLVC Championship Tournaments, Archuleta rallied his troops to secure the No. 1 seed in this year’s postseason event.  Additionally, USI (39-9, 29-5 GLVC) sits atop the NCAA Division II Midwest Region poll and is currently ranked eighth in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association top 25 poll and are tied for 15th in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper Top 30 poll.  Of the 33 All-Conference honorees from the East Division, Archuleta mentored 10 standouts, including sophomore outfielder Kyle Kempf, junior relief pitcher Matt Chavarria, senior second baseman Caleb Eickhoff, and senior starting pitcher Jon Wandling as first-team All-GLVC selections.

Drury freshman utility player Ryan Colombo joined his teammate Thimesch, as well as University of Illinois Springfield senior utility Jared Massengill as unanimous first-team All-GLVC picks.

The East Division First Team is made up of 16 players, while ties in the voting extended the East’s Second Team to 17 selections.  In the West, 16 honorees made up the First Team, as was the case with the Second Team although a tie at relief pitcher offset a no selection at the utility position.    

A complete list of All-GLVC performers and major postseason award winners can be found below.

FIRST TEAM ALL-GLVC – EAST DIVISION Austin Crutcher, Jr., OF, Bellarmine Curtis McCombs, Sr., SP, Bellarmine JARED MASSENGILL, Sr., UT, Illinois Springfield Kenny Mahala, Jr., 1B, Indianapolis Alex Ritchie, So., C, Indianapolis Mike Barajas, Jr., SS, Lewis Austin Mastela, So., DH, Lewis Ben Albano, Sr., OF, Lewis Steven Todoschuk, Sr., OF, McKendree Josh Keim, Jr., 3B, Saint Joseph’s Jordan Peterson, Jr., SP, Saint Joseph’s Brett Maus, Sr., SP, Saint Joseph’s Caleb Eickhoff, Sr., 2B, Southern Indiana Jon Wandling, Sr., SP, Southern Indiana Kyle Kempf, So., OF, Southern Indiana Matt Chavarria, Jr., RP, Southern Indiana	FIRST TEAM ALL-GLVC – WEST DIVISION Luke Tewes, Jr., 1B, Drury Colton Jones, Gr., 3B, Drury Caleb Cole, Sr., SS, Drury RYAN COLOMBO, Fr., UT, Drury Payton Reed, So., DH, Drury Emilio Villanueva, Sr., OF, Drury NICK THIMESCH, Sr., OF, Drury Will Landsheft, Sr., SP, Drury Trevor Richards, Jr., SP, Drury Kyle Kinyon, Sr., C, Maryville Kory Wisdom, Jr., 2B, Quincy Mitchell Broughton, Sr., OF, Quincy Jake Peterson, So., SP, Quincy Cody King, Jr., SP, Quincy Matt Fishman, Sr., RP, Quincy Corban Williams, Jr., OF, Truman State
SECOND TEAM ALL-GLVC – EAST DIVISION Andy Gehr, Jr., 2B, Bellarmine Logan Frye, Sr., UT, Illinois Springfield Adam Unes, Sr., OF, Illinois Springfield Jake Weinzapfel, Sr., SS, Indianapolis Bob Kwekel, Jr., RP, Indianapolis Matt Kaplanis, So., SP, Indianapolis Joe Trennepohl, Jr., OF, Indianapolis Dan Eliopulos, Sr., DH, Indianapolis Zach Jacobs, Jr., OF, Indianapolis Jake Murray, Sr., OF, Lewis Joel Rotkvich, So., 3B, Lewis David Toth, Sr., SP, Southern Indiana Ben Wright, Jr., SP, Southern Indiana Matt Bowles, Sr., SP, Southern Indiana Brent Weinzapfel, Sr., OF, Southern Indiana Andrew Cope, So., 1B, Southern Indiana Ryan Bertram, So., C, Southern Indiana	SECOND TEAM ALL-GLVC – WEST DIVISION Cole Faulconer, Sr., 2B, Drury Kevin Sweeney, Gr., SP, Drury Gage Jacobs, Jr., RP, Drury Sean Murphy, So., OF, Maryville Kyle Dermody, Sr., RP, Missouri-St. Louis Zach Sedlacek, Jr., SP, Missouri-St. Louis Cody Garlington, Sr., DH, Missouri-St. Louis Paul Richmond, Sr., C, Missouri-St. Louis Reed Brown, Jr., 3B, Missouri S&T Kenny May, Sr., SS, Quincy Calin McCourt, Jr., OF, Rockhurst Josh Tols, Sr., SP, Rockhurst Paul Trenhaile, Jr., 1B, Truman State Jarod Hahn, Jr., OF, Truman State Will Nader, Jr., OF, Truman State Drew Mitrisin, Sr., SP, William Jewell No UT selection
Player of the Year: Nick Thimesch, Sr., OF, Drury Pitcher of the Year: Will Landsheft, Sr., SP, Drury Freshman of the Year: Mario Samuel, Fr., SP, UW-Parkside Coach of the Year: Tracy Archuleta, Southern Indiana