This Week in the UMAC: May 14, 2012
"This Week in the UMAC" is a weekly publication of the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference that is normally distributed on Mondays throughout the academic year. It features standings, schedules, news and notes, as well as upcoming events from around the conference.
HEADLINES
St. Scholastica heads to Whitewater for NCAA Regional Baseball Tournament
The St. Scholastica baseball team is headed to its eighth straight NCAA Tournament and for the third year in a row the Saints will be playing in Whitewater, Wis. where they will open up with North Park University (Ill.).
St. Scholastica wins 15th straight UMAC Baseball Tournament
An early deficit didn't faze the CSS baseball team as it came back to defeat the Northwestern College Eagles 9-5 to win the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference Tournament at Wade Stadium on Friday afternoon.
Three schools gather up UMAC Men's Tennis All-Conference Awards
Thursday’s release of the UMAC men’s tennis postseason awards featured several players from three different schools as the College of St. Scholastica, Northwestern College and Martin Luther College grabbed all 12 spots on the all-conference list.
UMAC announces 2012 women's tennis awards
The UMAC announced its 2012 women’s tennis postseason awards on Thursday with the College of St. Scholastica, the league’s regular season and tournament champion, claiming the most awards. The Saints had five all-conference winners while boasting the UMAC Player of the Year.
St. Scholastica takes 18 of 25 all-conference awards in women's track and field
Of the 25 UMAC Women’s Outdoor Track & Field All-Conference awards that were handed out on Wednesday, a whopping 18 of them went to the College of St. Scholastica, who turned in a dominating victory at Saturday’s 2012 championship in Morris, Minn. The Saints scored 337 points in the meet, more than double the point total of their next-closest competitor.
Minnesota Morris leads men's track and field teams in all-conference balloting
The University of Minnesota Morris led all teams with 12 UMAC Men’s Outdoor Track & Field All-Conference awards as the league distributed 26 accolades following Saturday’s UMAC Championship. The College of St. Scholastica, who won Saturday’s team competition, was close behind with eight all-conference selections.
NEWS & NOTES
Bethany Lutheran
Senior Sam Stier led the Vikings offensively in the UMAC Baseball Post-Season Tournament. He started all three games Bethany played recording a .400 batting average. He had four hits including a timely triple and a total of three RBI. Freshman Lucas Herd and senior Casey Woodside each had four RBI in the tournament.
At the end on the season Bethany Lutheran baseball players ranked one, two and three in the conference in on base percentage, they are Nick Mahle (.558), Tommy Kramer (.540) and Benji Hager (.533).
This year freshman Adam Geiger led the team with 35 RBI and 14 doubles (second in the conference). Geiger finished with a .311 batting average. Fellow freshman Lucas Herd recorded a .370 batting average. Look out for Geiger and Herd in the coming years.
Junior pitcher Garrett Benson had a stand out year on the mound going 7-2. He had a 2.54 ERA in 71 innings pitched. He struck out 50 batters while only allowing nine walks. Hits opponents had a .200 batting average. Benson threw a shutout against Northwestern in the first game on the UMAC Post-Season Tournament.
Crown
Akina Zucarro's first team All-UMAC selection in softball was Crown's first since 2008, when now assistant coach Danielle Hall was a first team honoree.
Martin Luther
Martin Luther once again featured a great opportunity for its student-athletes to be involved in multiple sports in 2011-2012. The Knights had 30 student-athletes compete in multiple sports and had one athlete (Hannah Hackbarth) compete in three sports. The football, men's basketball and women's basketball teams each had seven multi-sport athletes on their rosters, while the volleyball and baseball teams each had six.
Three female senior athletes leave Martin Luther with school records in at least one sport. Erica Babinec is the school's all-time leader in points, rebounds, steals and free throws made in women's basketball. Sarah Free broke records in two sports, finishing with the most three-point field goals in school history on the hard wood and also the most hits and doubles in team history in softball. Finally, Emily Boldt leaves as the all-time leader in block assists in volleyball.
The Martin Luther softball team finished the 2012 season with the best fielding percentage in school history at .944.
Baseball player Jacob Ziel finished his sophomore season with a 3-2 win in extra innings in a previously suspended game. Ziel went all ten innings and struck out 10 to improve to 3-5 on the season. He is the first MLC player since 2009 to strike out more than 50 batters and pitch at least 50 innings in a season. Ziel started nine games in 2012, completing five of them.
Northwestern
The Eagles men's tennis team swept their gender's portion of the 2012 UMAC Player of the Week awards this spring. Four different Northwestern players were awarded POW honors throughout the course of the season.
With Northwestern's 4-0 win over Bethany Lutheran in the UMAC Tournament on Friday, Eagles head baseball coach Dave Hieb recorded his 300th career victory at the team's helm. In his 17th season, Hieb is easily the Northwestern baseball program's career wins leader with the late Chub Reynolds being next in line at 148 wins.
St. Scholastica
The Saints won 20 UMAC regular season and tournament championships in 2011-12. The UMAC gives out 26 championships total and CSS does not compete in one of them (Men's Golf).
The Saints had a home record of 76-1-2 vs. UMAC opponents during the 2011-12 sports year.
The Baseball team won its 15th straight UMAC Tournament on Friday. The Saints have won the tournament every year of its existence. There is not a UMAC Tournament MVP named, but if there was it would probably go to Parker Olson, who batted .500 (6-for-12), including three hits and three RBIs in each of the last two games of the Tournament.
STANDINGS
Baseball
| School |
UMAC |
Overall |
| St. Scholastica |
21-0 |
33-9 |
| Bethany Lutheran |
14-5 |
22-17 |
| Northwestern |
15-6 |
26-16 |
| Northland |
9-12 |
16-25 |
| Presentation |
8-11 |
13-24 |
| Minnesota Morris |
6-13 |
6-30 |
| Martin Luther |
5-14 |
8-23 |
| Crown |
2-19 |
3-23 |
UMAC IN NATIONAL STATISTICS
Baseball (as of May 6)
St. Scholastica (Team) - 3rd in Batting Average (.345)
St. Scholastica (Team) - 4th in Slugging Percentage (.501)
St. Scholastica (Team) - 5th in Doubles Per Game (2.51)
Tommy Kramer (BLC) - 5th in On-Base Percentage (.558)
Bethany Lutheran (Team) - 6th in Scoring (8.5)
Kyle Flagstad (CSS) - 7th in Batting Average (.459)
Kyle Flagstad (CSS) - 7th in Triples Per Game (0.21)
Kyle Flagstad (CSS) - 9th in Triples (7)
St. Scholastica (Team) - 9th in Triples Per Game (0.56)
St. Scholastica (Team) - 10th in Triples (22)
Kyle Flagstad (CSS) - 11th in Slugging Percentage (.780)
Tommy Kramer (BLC) - 11th in Walks Per Game (0.91)
St. Scholastica (Team) - 12th in Doubles (98)
St. Scholastica (Team) - 13th in Double Plays Per Game (1.08)
Kyle Flagstad (CSS) - 13th in On-Base Percentage (.530)
St. Scholastica (Team) - 14th in Scoring (8.3)
Garrett Benson (BLC) - 14th in Walks Allowed Per Nine Innings (0.94)
St. Scholastica (Team) - 15th in Double Plays (42)
Nathan Brown (North) - 15th in Walks Per Game (0.84)
Nathan Brown (North) - 15th in Walks (31)
Kyle Moody (CSS) - 15th in RBI Per Game (1.32)
Kyle Moody (CSS) - 16th in RBI (50)
Jake Johnson (UMM) - 16th in Complete Games (7)
Tommy Kramer (BLC) - 19th in Walks (30)
Kyle Flagstad (CSS) - 22nd in RBI Per Game (1.26)
St. Scholastica (Team) - 16th in Runs (323)
Adam Geiger (BLC) - 21st in Doubles Per Game (0.48)
THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE
Baseball
Wednesday, May 14
St. Scholastica vs. North Central (Ill.) - NCAA Tournament (Whitewater, Wis.), 4 p.m.