TROY, N.Y. – Rensselaer head baseball coach
Karl Steffen has announced the team’s year-end awards and six student athletes have been recognized.
Patrick Reardon,
Andrew Mondo,
Tom Jebb,
Mike Cieszko,
Andrew Krushelnyski,
Sean Wilkes and
Andrew Novick garnered 2009 team awards, which were determined prior to the NCAA Tournament.
Reardon, a junior catcher from Troy, N.Y., was named the “Pop” Graham Award winner as the team’s top hitter, batting a club-best .409 (79 for 193) with 22 doubles, a triple and 10 home runs. He set school single-season records in hits (79) and runs scored (61), while driving in 54. The LaSalle Institute graduate led the team with a .689 slugging percentage and a .491 on-base percentage.
A junior pitcher from Clifton Park, N.Y., Mondo took home the Joe Purello Award as the club’s top pitcher. He broke the Rensselaer mark for wins, going 11-3 with a 3.03 earned run averaged in 15 starts. The Shenendehowa High School graduate led the Red Hawks with two complete games and a shutout and was also tops on the team in strikeouts (93) and innings pitched (92.0).
The Bob Ducatte Award, given to the Team MVP, went to Jebb, a junior who led the Red Hawks to a 36-9 record after taking over as the starting shortstop. The Ticonderoga, N.Y., native hit .333 (50 for 150) with nine doubles, two home runs and 27 runs batted in. The former Ticonderoga High School standout was also 8 for 11 on stolen base attempts.
Cieszko, a sophomore who hails from Stevenson Ranch, Calif., earned the Jim Greenidge Award as the Red Hawks’ most improved player. On the mound, he went 2-0 with a team-best five saves and a 1.04 ERA in 20 appearances. A graduate of William S. Hart High School, he also hit .331 (46 for 139) with four home runs and 28 RBI.
The Johnny Evers Awards for top defensive players went to Krushelnyski and Wilkes. A junior from Bloomfield Hills, Mich., Krushelnyski compiled a .981 fielding percentage in 49 games at first base. He hit .301 (55 for 183) with two home runs and 44 runs batted in. Wilkes, a senior centerfielder from Troy, N.Y., had a .982 fielding percentage, while hitting .360 (77 for 214) as a starter in all 50 games. He also broke his own record for at-bats in a season (214) as well as the career hits mark at Rensselaer (244).
A senior pitcher from Hopewell Junction, N.Y., Novick was given the Skip Falkenstine Award as the team’s best student/player. He had a 3.42 cumulative grade point average as a nuclear engineering major, while earning a 6-2 record on the mound. The former John Jay High School standout appeared in a school-record 74 games over his four years at Rensselaer.
The baseball team, which finished the season 17th in the country in the final ABCA/Collegiate Baseball poll, set a team record for wins, going 37-13. The Red Hawks won the Liberty League regular season title and were runners-up to Farmingdale State in the New York Regional of the NCAA Tournament.