Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
CANYON, Texas — The Lone Star Conference, on the eve of its baseball tournament, handed out plenty of honors at its postseason banquet. Seven of those awarded were Eastern New Mexico University players.
Second baseman Alex DeLaCruz repeated as an All-LSC first-teamer, leading a five-man selection on the squad. Pitcher Keenan Dodd, meanwhile, was the LSC's academic player of the year and one of three Hounds selected to the all-academic team.
DeLaCruz led the LSC in batting (.389) and was second in hits and third in stolen bases. He led ENMU with 24 multi-hit games and 13 multiple-RBI games.
Third baseman Garlind Webster, an honorable mention last season, moved up to the second team after batting .359 - good for eighth in the LSC.
Three Greyhounds received honorable mention - Dodd, catcher Julian Heredia and closer Levi Shandrew. Heredia batted .336 and swiped 14 bases in 16 attempts. Shandrew had six saves on the season, and held hitters to a .202 average.
Dodd, a senior biochemistry/chemistry major from Albuquerque, has the top ERA among ENMU starters (4.62), and was selected by the school as its biochemistry student of the year and most outstanding graduating senior in chemistry. He is ENMU's first baseball player to win the academic player of the year honor.
Dodd was joined on the all-academic team by fellow pitchers Enrique Perez and Michael Holliday. Perez and Holliday are both business administration majors; Perez is 6-3 on the season, while Holliday has pitched 17 2/3 innings out of the bullpen.
To be eligible for LSC academic honors, student-athletes must carry at least a 3.30 grade point average and have reached sophomore status both athletically and academically. The Academic Player of Year award and All-Academic Team are selected from the list of academically qualified players, with the league's sports information directors voting on the basis of both academic and athletic achievement. Nine players were selected to the team.
Regular season champion West Texas A&M took a pair of awards, with Luis Amaro as player of the year and the staff led by Matt Venderburg the top coaching team. Nathan Hickey of Tarleton State was pitcher of the year, while Texas A&M-Kingsville's Tyler Flores was freshman of the year.
