PBC YEARBOOK
as well as a .943 fielding percentage. In the field, Hutcheon led the
Peach Belt Conference with 173 assists on the year and finished fourth
in the conference after helping the Falcons turn 43 double plays.
Six PBC Baseball Players Named All-American
AUGUSTA, GA – Six Peach Belt Conference baseball players have been
named All-Americans as the ABCA and D2CCA released their teams
over the weekend. Georgia College’s Dylan Cook was named a firstteam All-American by both organizations while Columbus State’s Mike
McClellan was named second team by both groups.
USC Aiken’s Zach Moon was named a first-team All-American
by the D2CCA. The commissioner’s group also listed Ryan Ihle to the
second team along with Lander’s Colby Lusignan. The Bearcats Zach
Daly was a D2CCA third-team All-American.
The ABCA also released their Gold Glove team and North Georgia’s
Devin Gearhart earned the defensive honor at third base.
The fourth PBC Player of the Year in school history, Cook is a twotime All-PBC selection and was named all-region a year ago as well.
The Bobcat senior finished the season with a .414 batting average, 14
home runs and 64 RBIs. The former gold glover added 63 runs scored
and 23 steals.
McClellan had a banner year for the Cougars in 2016. The senior
finished the season with a .418 average with 19 home runs and 71
runs driven in. He led CSU in each of the three categories while also
ranking inside the top-three in the Peach Belt Conference in those
categories as well. The McDonough, Ga. native finished with the sixth
best average in a single-season by a CSU player while his 19 homers
also ranked sixth on the single-season list. McClellan finished the year
with an on-base percentage above .500 while recording a 19-game
hitting streak. In PBC history, McClellan finished fourth in homers and
eighth in average. He is a two-time All-American earning the honors
in 2015 as well.
Moon, a 6-4 designated hitter from Snellville, Ga., was recently
named an honorable mention All-American by the NCBWA. He has
also been named to the NCBWA, ABCA/Rawlings and D2CCA all-region
squads and was an all-conference honoree. He helped the Pacers earn
a berth in the NCAA Tournament and guided the team to a spot in the
Southeast Region Championship. He led the team with 16 round-trippers and 68 RBI. Moon’s 58 runs scored and .626 slugging percentage
were tops for USC Aiken. He accounted for a .458 on-base percentage.
Moon finished fourth in the league in home runs and RBI.
Ihle had a breakout year in 2016 for Columbus State earning him
First Team All-Southeast Region honors from the D2CCA and Second
Team honors from the ABCA and NCBWA. One of the top hitters in
the nation, Ihle posted a .404 average this year with 19 doubles, five
homers and 49 runs driven in. The senior scored 68 runs this year, the
third-most in the PBC and 15th in the country, while collecting 95 hits,
2015-16
the sixth-most in the nation. He finished fourth on the CSU single-season hit list while also tallying CSU’s longest hit streak of the season at 23
games.
Colby Lusignan and Zach Daly are currently competing for Lander in
the DII World Series in Cary, N.C. A senior utility player from Eustis, Fla.,
Lusignan was named first-team All-Conference after hitting .396 with
13 home runs and 66 RBIs. He is ranked in the PBC’s top 10 in runs, hits,
home runs, RBIs, total bases and slugging percentage.
Daly leads the PBC with 22 home runs and 76 RBIs. A senior
outfielder from Gastonia, N.C., he was named first-team All-Conference with a .297 batting average. Daly is eighth in the PBC in slugging
percentage and sixth in runs scored.
Gearhart is the first North Georgia player in program history to win
a Rawlings Gold Glove on the national level. Four Nighthawks previously
won the honor at the region level. Gearhart commanded the hot corner
for UNG with incredible efficiency. The Cumming native recorded 37 putouts and 101 assists, only committing three errors in 141 chances this
season. He did not commit an error in the last 35 games of the season, a
span of over two months. The junior’s .979 fielding percentage matched
the Nighthawks overall fielding percentage, as UNG led the nation
defensively this year, committing fewer errors (42) than any other team
in the country.
Patriot southpaw named national Pitcher of the Week
2
5
Y
E
A
R
S
FLORENCE, SC – Francis Marion University senior left-handed pitcher
Matt Kelley has been named the National Collegiate Baseball Writers
Association’s national Pitcher of the Week for NCAA Division II and week
ending on April 26.
Minnesota-Duluth senior first baseman Alex Wojciechowski is the
National Hitter of the Week. Kelley is the second PBC player this season
to receive a national honor from the NCBWA; Georgia College’s Dylan
Cook was named the national hitter of the week on March 25.
Kelley tossed a complete-game four-hit shutout on Sunday in a 3-0
victory over Georgia Southwestern State University. The Hampton, Ga.,
fanned 13 batters and did not issue a walk. Only six batters reached
base throughout the game and Kelley struck out the side in order in
each of the first and sixth innings.
Kelley is 2-0 in his last two starts with a 1.66 earned run average, 25
strikeouts, and only one walk.
This season, Kelley is 6-4 with a 3.93 ERA through 14 starts. His 3.93
ERA ranks ninth in the Peach Belt Conference, while his 79 strikeouts is
fourth-best and his 75.2 innings pitched rank fifth.
Founded in 1962, the NCBWA