Baseball Lands 10 On All-SCAC Team; Reichek Named Freshman Of Year
Aidan Reichek was named the SCAC Freshman of the Year and was one of 10 Diamond Gents to earn All-SCAC honors.
CLEBURNE, Texas – Tyler Post of Texas Lutheran University was voted the Offensive Player-of-the-Year and Jackson Teer of Trinity University was selected the league's Pitcher-of-the-Year in exclusive 2023 all-Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) voting by the conference's head coaches. Complete Release
In the same balloting, Centenary College's Aidan Reichek was named the conference's Freshman-of-the-Year, while Texas Lutheran head coach Rick Heines earned SCAC Coach-of-the-Year honors.
As for the composition of the All-SCAC team, Trinity led with eight combined selections (First/Second Team) with TLU following closely with seven. Centenary, who had the most first team selections with four, had five combined selections and Southwestern followed with four.
Post, a junior first baseman from San Antonio, Texas, is currently in the top five in the SCAC in almost every offensive category, including posting league-leading totals in home runs (12), runs batted in (62), runs scored (39), total bases (104) and slugging percentage (.727). He is also second in triples (three), third in hits (52) and doubles (10), fourth in batting average (.364) and fifth in on-base percentage (.452). He is currently fourth in NCAA Division III in RBIs. Post was a two-time SCAC Offensive Player-of-the-Week during the regular season, including two weeks ago when he batted .545 (6-for-11) with nine RBI, three runs scored, one home run and one double in a three-game sweep of Dallas. The junior has had 18 multi-hit games this season and has hit safely in 12 of this last 13 games. A 2021 All-West Region and SCAC First Team selection, Post is the third straight and fourth overall TLU player to earn Offensive Player-of-the-Year accolades. Riley Schaefer won the award in 2018 and former teammates Tyler Cauley and Joe Jimenez earned Offensive POTY honors in 2021 and 2022, respectively.
Post received six first-place nods during the balloting process while senior catcher Gerardo Cardoza of Schreiner University picked up the two remaining votes.
Teer, a sophomore right-hander from San Antonio, Texas, is the current SCAC leader in wins with eight and is fourth in the conference with a 2.38 earned run average. He has been even more stingy in conference action, posting a league high five wins during league play with an ERA of 1.77 (second in the SCAC). His .208 batting average against is fourth in the SCAC – a number that shrank to .151 in conference-only games which was good for second-best in the league. The sophomore has struck out 65 batters (fourth in the SCAC) in 68.0 innings of work. Teer was a two-time SCAC Pitcher-of-the-Week selection during the regular season, including in Week 6 when he pitched a seven-inning no-hitter, retiring 16 consecutive batters to close out the 10-0 victory over Austin College. The performance, which also earned him NCBWA Division III National Pitcher of the Week and a position on the D3baseball.com Team of the Week, marked just the 12th no-hitter in Trinity school history and the first solo no-hitter for the program since the 2017 season. Teer is the first Trinity hurler to earn Pitcher of the Year honors since Zack Speer in 2014 and the 10th in program history.
In earning Pitcher-of-the-Year honors, Teer received three votes from the coaches, one more than both senior right-hander Parker Primeaux of Centenary and senior left-hander J.J. Slack of Southwestern University. Junior right-hander Brendan Beard of Texas Lutheran picked up the remaining first-place vote.
Centenary's Reichek, first-year right-hander from Bellaire, Texas, is currently fifth in the conference and first among all freshmen, with a 2.42 earned run average over 48.1 innings of work this season. He has struck out 42 batters, including 35 in conference action (ninth in the SCAC), and his .188 batting average against is third in the SCAC. Reichek earned SCAC Pitcher of the Week honors in Week 7 when he tossed a no-hitter against the University of Dallas, facing 24 batters and needing just 70 pitches (50 strikes) while striking out seven in going the distance. The no-hitter was just the second in school history in the Division III era and the first thrown by a Gent since Matthew Devillier held Austin College hitless on April 20, 2018. The first-year hurler also earned NCBWA National Rookie of the Week honors as well as a spot on the D3baseball.com Team of the Week for this performance. Reichek is the second consecutive Centenary player, and fourth all-time, to earn SCAC Freshman-of-the-Year honors, following his teammate Tyler Herrera who was so honored following the 2022 season.
Reichek earned three first-place votes in the closely contested Freshman-of-the-Year balloting, followed by his teammate, first-year outfielder Carson Livesay, who received two votes. First-year outfielder Josh Endo of Southwestern, first-year outfielder Mason Goudeau of Texas Lutheran and first-year pitcher Dylan Krause of University of Dallas each picked up one first-place vote.
In his third season at the helm of the Texas Lutheran program, head coach Rick Heines has led the Bulldogs to a 27-13 overall mark and a league best 17-4 conference record, clinching the program's first outright regular season title since joining the SCAC prior to the 2014 season. The regular season title marks the third regular season championship (2016 and 2019) and fifth overall (tournament titles in 2018 and 2021) for TLU in the SCAC era. The 17 conference wins against just four losses matches the best single-season conference winning percentage (.810) in program history, which Heines also produced with his 2022 squad. Holding an overall head coaching record of 85-41 (.675) entering this weekend's tournament, Heines in his 11th season with the Bulldogs after having served under former head coach Greg Burnett for eight seasons as pitching coach and recruiting coordinator and associate head coach from 2018-2020. The COTY award is the third for a TLU head baseball coach as Burnett was honored following the 2016 and 2019 seasons.
2023 SCAC Player-of-the-Year
Tyler Post, Texas Lutheran University, Junior, First Baseman, San Antonio, Texas
2023 SCAC Pitcher-of-the-Year
Jackson Teer, Trinity University, Sophomore, Pitcher, San Antonio, Texas
2023 SCAC Freshman-of-the-Year
Aidan Reichek, Centenary College, First-Year, Pitcher, Bellaire, Texas
2023 SCAC Coach-of-the-Year
Rick Heines, Texas Lutheran University / 27-13 Overall Record (17-4 SCAC) / Regular Season Champs
For the complete 2023 SCAC All-Conference baseball team, click here.
