EMU’s baseball men landed three players on the All-ODAC teams, which were released at the ODAC Tournament today, including picking up a major award.
Joe Hall (Gladys, Va./Rustburg) landed on the All-ODAC First Team as well as being voted the ODAC/Farm Bureau Insurance Scholar-Athlete. Damon Frazier (Waynesboro, Va./Wilson Memorial) joined him on the First Team. Kyle Mathews (Chesapeake, Va./Great Bridge) took a spot on the All-ODAC Second Team.
Hall earned the second First Team award on his career, repeating the spot from his sophomore season. The versatile senior took one of the outfield position after leading the nation with 71 hits during the regular season. He hit .447 (second in the ODAC) with a .500 on-base percentage and .604 slugging percentage. Both of those marks were top-six in the conference. Hall stole 25 bases to lead the ODAC and break EMU’s season record, which had been 24 set by Maven Huffman in 1997. He also set career highs with 40 runs scored, 32 RBIs, eight doubles, four triples and three homeruns. He had 24 multi-hit games. Also a reliever, the right hander earned a 2-0 record in 8.1 innings on the mound.
In the classroom, Hall flashed just as much work ethic, holding a 3.61 GPA as a recreational leadership and sports studies major. He added minors in business administration and psychology, and was a regular on EMU’s Dean’s List, the ODAC All-Academic Team and Royals All-Academic Team. Earlier this week Hall was also named Academic All-District by CoSIDA.
Frazier made an immediate impact as a graduate student transfer at EMU, earning All-ODAC First Team laurels as a utility player. He spent the entire season as the team’s No. 1 pitcher, earning a 5-4 record in 13 appearances, including 12 starts. Frazier had a 4.92 ERA in 67.2 innings pitched, also striking out 50 to finish 11th in the ODAC with 6.65 strikeouts per nine innings. He threw a season-long 7.2 innings in a 7-4 win over rival Bridgewater on the last Friday of the season to give the Royals their first-ever sweep over BC. At the plate, Frazier worked his way into the cleanup spot of the order, and was third on the team with a .352 batting average and fourth with 30 RBIs. He added four homeruns.
Mathews took a Second Team spot at first base. He closed his career on a 24-game hitting streak and hit safely in 37 of 39 games this year. His .405 batting average was third in the ODAC, giving EMU two of the top three hitters, while his 62 hits and 103 total bases were second in the league. Mathews had an incredible power surge late in the season, hitting six homeruns in the span of seven games, including back-to-back two-homer efforts against Southern Virginia and Shenandoah, the top-ranked team in the nation. Like Hall, Mathews had career highs across the board, including 35 runs, 34 RBIs, 15 walks, 13 doubles and five triples. Splitting time between first and the outfield, he made just two errors in 199 chances for a .990 fielding percentage.
Eastern Mennonite had a record of 19-20 this year, gaining the second most wins over the past 15 seasons.
This is the first time since 2002 that Eastern Mennonite had a player earn of the conference’s major award. Erik Kratz was named ODAC Player of the Year in both 2001 and 2002, while the Royals also had the Rookie of the Year each year, with Barnaby Quick and T.J. Frazier, winning it, respectively. Coach Ben Spotts earned Coach of the Year honors in 2015.
This year also wraps up the era of Spotts’ first recruiting class, graduating 12 men this year. Of those 12, four earned an All-ODAC award over their career. Griffin Stanley (Roanoke, Va./Cave Spring) and Kyle Salladay (Chesapeake, Va./Grassfield) each earned an All-ODAC Third Team spot as juniors.
Spotts now has six All-ODAC First Team honorees in his five seasons at Eastern Mennonite. The Royals had just two such awards in the 11 years between the Kratz and Spotts eras.