(Seguin) – Texas Lutheran senior outfielder Tyler Cauley was named the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Offensive Player of the Year, and eight other Bulldogs received SCAC baseball honors.
Cauley and Preston Ludwick of Centenary College were selected the league’s Offensive Player and Pitcher of the Year, respectively, in exclusive voting by the conference’s head coaches.
In the same balloting, Maxwell Mims of Southwestern University was named the conference’s Freshman of the Year, and Centenary head coach Mike Diaz earned SCAC Coach-of-the-Year honors.
As for the All-SCAC team, TLU led the way with a league-high five First Team selections while Centenary and Trinity University followed with four and three honorees, respectively. Centenary had the most combined selections (First/Second Team) with seven, followed closely by Texas Lutheran with six and Trinity with five.
TLU’s five All-SCAC First Team selections were: Cauley as an outfielder, Joe Jimenez (San Antonio/Johnson) at shortstop, Randy Huerta (New Braunfels/New Braunfels) at third base, Tyler Post (San Antonio/Johnson) at designated hitter, and Joe Burch (Geronimo/Navarro) as a pitcher.
Austin Colon (La Grange/La Grange) was named to the All-SCAC Second Team as a second baseman, and Brendan Beard (New Waverly/Coldspring-Oakhurst), Caleb Maly (Pearland/Pearland), and Cullen Motsinger (Houston/Cypress Ranch) received All-SCAC Honorable Mention.
Cauley, a senior outfielder from Baytown, Texas, leads the SCAC this season in home runs (13), and he is second in RBI (47).
Cauley has slugged .660 this season and is also in the top-five in the league in total bases (95), walks (31) and sacrifice flies (9). His 41 career home runs currently place him tied for second on the SCAC all-time chart.
A 2018 D3baseball.com and ABCA Third Team All-America selection when he led the Bulldogs to a NCAA national runner-up finish, Cauley is the second TLU player to earn Offensive Player of the Year accolades. His former teammate, Riley Schaefer, received the honor following the 2018 season.
In what was an extremely close vote, Cauley received four first-place nods during the balloting process while senior first baseman Preston Ludwick of Centenary College trailed with three appearances atop the coaches’ ballots. Senior outfielder Rafe Chaumette of Trinity received the remaining first-place vote.
Jimenez, a junior, is hitting .303 this year with eight home runs and 46 RBI. He has scored 42 runs and stolen 12 bases. He has started all but one game at shortstop this season for the Bulldogs.
Huerta, also a junior, is hitting .326 with nine home runs, 23 RBI, 34 runs scored, and seven stolen bases. After splitting time as an infielder in the early part of the season, Huerta has made third base his home. He closed out the regular season with a nine-game hitting streak and had five homers in a five-game stretch during the hitting streak.
Post, a redshirt freshman. has served as the team’s DH and as a first baseman. He has belted 11 home runs this season and hit .333. He has 40 RBI with 40 runs scored. Along with Jimenez, Cauley, Huerta and Motsinger, Post too was an SCAC Hitter of the Week during the regular season.
Burch has been a stalwart right-hander in the Bulldogs’ rotation. He won a career-high six games, going 6-1, in a career-best 58-2/3 innings of work. He struck out 55 and has an ERA of 4.45.
Colon, a senior, is hitting .290 with a home run, 29 RBI, 43 runs scored, and eight steals.
Beard, the winning pitcher in Friday night’s SCAC tournament win, is a 6-foot-6 redshirt freshman right-hander. He is 3-2 with two saves in 39-1/3 inning pitched. He has struck out 43 and he has an ERA of 2.75.
Maly, the senior starter in left field, is hitting .327 with a home run, 23 RBI, 27 runs scored and nine stole bases. He has walked 26 times, been hit by a pitch five times, and has an on-base percentage of .474.
Motsinger, the senior center fielder, is hitting .349 with a home run, 37 RBI, 37 runs scored, and 10 steals. His on-base percentage is .476.
The afforementioned players helped Texas Lutheran win its second Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship in three seasons last weekend in Cleburne, culminating with a 16-15 win over No. 2 ranked Trinity in 10 innings on Sunday.
The Bulldogs will learn their NCAA Division III regional destination on May 23.