Three Falcons Named to A.I.I. All-Conference Second Team

Posted: May 07, 2016

The Fisher College baseball team had three players receive post season recognition. All three were named to the second team; Grayson Webber as a starting pitcher, Matthew Trotta as a relief pitcher, and Cody Mercier as an outfielder. The team will start playoffs tonight at 7:00 PM.

After spending much of the year ranked No. 1 in the country and putting together a 51-4 season, it should come as no surprise that the Georgia Gwinnett baseball team was the big winner at the annual A.I.I. awards banquet on Friday evening.

The Grizzlies took home four of the five individual awards on the day and placed eight of a possible nine on the all-conference first team.

Zac Rinehart became the second consecutive Player of the Year winner from GGC after hitting .464 with 18 doubles, seven homers and 54 runs batted in, and Josh Merrigan was the Newcomer of the Year with a .431 average and 51 RBI. Meanwhile, Davis Adkins was named the league's top pitcher after racking up a 12-0 record with seven saves and a 1.84 earned run average.

Brad Stromdahl earned a third consecutive Coach of the Year honor.

Nikolay Uherek, Will Solomon, William Paschal, Trey Haygood and Marcus McCorkle joined their Grizzly teammates on the first team.

College of the Ozarks' Dylan Heitz was named Freshman of the Year, and he'd be joined on the first team by the Texas A&M-Texarkana duo of Bobby Kramer and Kenneth Fudge as well as the Clarke tandem of Nate McMullen and Tanner Lupton. Ashford's Jean Carlos Peralta, Central Christian's Zane Howard and Mount Mercy's Cody Bell rounded out the first team honorees.

MMU, TAMUT and Fisher each placed three on the second team, and both Clarke and Central Christian boasted of a pair of honorees.

TAMUT and GGC each also placed three players onto the Gold Glove team, with representatives from Clarke, Central Christian and Rochester rounding it out.

The A.I.I. Baseball Championship will begin on Saturday at Grizzly Baseball Complex on the campus of Georgia Gwinnett.

PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Zac Rinehart, Georgia Gwinnett
PITCHER OF THE YEAR: Davis Adkins, Georgia Gwinnett
FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR: Dylan Heitz, College of the Ozarks
NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR: Josh Merrigan, Georgia Gwinnett
COACH OF THE YEAR: Brad Stromdahl, Georgia Gwinnett

FIRST TEAM

SP - Cody Bell, Mount Mercy
SP - Nikolay Uherek, Georgia Gwinnett
SP - Will Solomon, Georgia Gwinnett
SP - Tanner Lupton, Clarke
RP - Davis Adkins, Georgia Gwinnett
C - Bobby Kramer, Texas A&M-Texarkana
1B - Zac Rinehart, Georgia Gwinnett
2B - Zane Howard, Central Christian
SS - Jean Carlos Peralta, Ashford
3B - William Paschal, Georgia Gwinnett
OF - Josh Merrigan, Georgia Gwinnett
OF - Nate McMullen, Clarke
OF - Kenneth Fudge, Texas A&M-Texarkana
OF - Trey Haygood, Georgia Gwinnett
DH - Dylan Heitz, College of the Ozarks
UT - Marcus McCorkle, Georgia Gwinnett

SECOND TEAM

SP - Grayson Weber, Fisher
SP - Jason Jones, Texas A&M-Texarkana
SP - Cale Henke, Mount Mercy
SP - Michael Lopez, Clarke
RP - Matthew Trotta, Fisher
C - Jimmy Lizarraga, Mount Mercy
1B - Tarran Beasley, Mount Mercy
2B - Tyler Provow, Rochester
SS - Graham Greenbeck, Central Christian
3B - Tad Mitchell, College of the Ozarks
OF - Cole Beckham, Texas A&M-Texarkana
OF - Caleb Gorman, Central Christian
OF - Cody Mercier, Fisher
OF - Kevin Hunley, Clarke
DH - Cade Thomason, Texas A&M-Texarkana

GOLD GLOVE TEAM

1B - Croix Sedillo, Texas A&M-Texarkana
2B - Kolton Perfect, Texas A&M-Texarkana
SS - Austin Gehl, Clarke
3B - Stephan Zanoni, Clarke
LF - Brady Hamilton, Georgia Gwinnett
CF - Caleb Gorman, Central Christian
RF - Brandon Dupuis, Rochester
P - Chris Aichinger, Georgia Gwinnett
C - Brady Shoppe, Georgia Gwinnett