May 26, 2010

NAPERVILLE, Ill. -

The 2010 All-Great West Conference Baseball Team was selected by the league coaches and announced on Wednesday prior to the GWC Baseball Tournament. Utah Valley's Jace Brinkerhoff was named GWC Player of the Year, while Northern Colorado's Joe Sawicki was chosen Pitcher of the Year.

Brinkerhoff leads the nation in batting (.463), hits (113) and RBI (84) and is third in the country in runs with 83, while Sawicki went undefeated in GWC play with a 7-0 record He tallied a league-leading 1.82 ERA in GWC games and also leads the conference at 3.36 for the season with a 9-2 record in 13 appearances.

Northern Colorado's Mark Shannon was named Newcomer of the Year after the pitcher posted a 5-1 GWC record. The true freshman also hits for himself and has a .314 batting average. Coach of the Year honors went to Utah Valley's Eric Madsen after leading the Wolverines to the inaugural GWC championship with a 26-2 league record.

2010 Great West All-Conference Baseball Team

Player of the Year -- Jace Brinkerhoff, Utah Valley

Pitcher of the Year -- Joe Sawicki, Northern Colorado

Newcomer of the Year -- Mark Shannon, Northern Colorado

Coach of the Year -- Eric Madsen, Utah Valley

First Team

1B Jake Magner, North Dakota

2B T.J.Berge, Northern Colorado

3B Jace Brinkerhoff, Utah Valley

SS Jake Rickenbach, Utah Valley

DH Robbie Buller, Houston Baptist

OF Chris Benson, Utah Valley

OF Jarod Berggren, Northern Colorado

OF Jason Zundel, Utah Valley 

UT Chase Hernandez, Houston Baptist

C Kevin Arendse, Utah Valley

P Andrew Guarrasi, NYIT

P Joe Sawicki, Northern Colorado

P Mark Shannon, Northern Colorado 

RP Brian Whatcott, Utah Valley

Second Team

1B Kyle Hardman, Northern Colorado

2B Angel Ibanez, Texas-Pan American

2B Derek Smith, Houston Baptist

3B Effrey Valdez, NYIT 

SS Brian Smith, NYIT 

OF Josh Lagein, North Dakota  

OF Paul Prestera, Houston Baptist

OF Jerry Smith, NYIT    

UT/DH Austin Heaps, Utah Valley

C Seth Budde, Northern Colorado

P Kyle Beecher, Utah Valley

P Blake Krahenbuhl, Utah Valley 

P Dalton Schafer, Houston Baptist 

RP Mike Roth, NYIT

The inaugural Great West Conference Baseball Tournament will be played May 26-29 at Edinburg, Texas.