Four Royals earn All-ODAC baseball honors

The EMU Royals had four men recognized as All-ODAC this season after the team matched the program record for conference wins and earned a conference tournament berth.

Sophomore Ray Tricarico (Culpeper, Va./Eastern View) and freshman Jordan Jones(Saxe, Va./Randolph Henry) were both named to the All-ODAC Second Team while sophomore Jaylon Lee (Newport News, Va./Denbigh) and freshman Connor Lutz(Colonial Beach, Va./Colonial Beach) earned All-ODAC Third Team honors.

Tricarico claimed the team batting title hitting .409 on the season while driving in 22 runs with eight doubles, a triple, and a home run. Most of his damage came in conference play where he batted .490 and scored 14 runs. The catcher set the tone defensively holding a .991 fielding percentage and threw out nine runners from behind the plate while stealing five bases himself.

Jones became the table setter at the top of the order for the Royals after finding his way into the lineup just as conference play began. He batted .352 on the year and .351 in conference while coming around to score 23 times to rank fifth in the ODAC. Jones led conference play with 13 stolen bases in 22 games and the team high 15 on the season. Playing both corner outfield positions, he had two assists and a .968 fielding percentage.

Lee was a threat to hit the ball over the left field scoreboard at the EMU field every time he stepped up to the plate. Hitting 10 home runs on the season (eight at home) is the most by a Royal since 2006 and ties the program record for fifth most in a season. Lee’s home run totals finished second overall and tied for second in ODAC play with five. He finished fourth in RBIs with 42 while batting .320, hitting 10 doubles and four triples. Lee consistently made plays in center field racking up five assists with a .976 field percentage.

Lutz appeared in 10 conference games, 8 of which were starts to finish with the fifth most innings pitched in ODAC play with 52.2 and posted a 3.45 ERA which was seventh best among qualified ODAC pitchers. He gave the Royals a chance to win each time he took the mound as they had an 8-3 record in games Lutz started this season earning him a 4-2 record. This tied him for the team lead in wins which included a complete game at Virginia Wesleyan while also adding a save. The freshman compiled 35 strikeouts and only walked seven in 63.1 total innings pitched.

Finishing with a record of 10-12 in conference placed the EMU Diamond Royals into the ODAC Tournament for the second time since 2002. Five of the top-six team at bat leaders were freshmen or sophomores as they look towards building on the year’s success.

Listed below are the 2019 All-ODAC Baseball Awards.  For more information, visit any of the participating schools’ websites, or go to the ODAC’s home on the Internet at www.odaconline.com.