BEREA, OHIO -- Baldwin-Wallace College veteran Head Baseball Coach Bob Fisher announced the 2009 team award winners. They are freshman shortstopAnthony Longhitano (Cuyahoga Falls), senior pitcher Brandon Fredericks (Copley/ Richfield Revere), senior first baseman Riley Kreisher (Conneaut/ Ashtabula Edgewood), senior centerfielder Cody Kidd (Wellington), junior outfielder/pitcher Chris Nealon (Avon Lake) and sophomore outfielder Ben Stoper (Medina/ Senior).
Longhitano was named Outstanding Freshman after batting .276 with six runs batted-in during 18 games played. He made nine starts at shortstop and registered a .941 fielding percentage that included a .958 clip in conference play with only one error.
Fredericks was the recipient of the Outstanding Pitcher Award and the Guy Fisher Award for Academic Excellence. He graduated with a 3.93 grade point average in business administration and was B-W's Clyde Lamb Award winner, symbolic of the school's most outstanding male student-athlete. In 2009, Fredericks led the Yellow Jackets with 52 and two-third innings pitched, three complete games and 32 strikeouts. He was also an ESPN THE MAGAZINE Academic All-District IV selection, a Dean's List student and a member of the Chi Alpha Sigma and Alpha Lambda honor societies.
Kreisher earned the Gold Glove Award for the third consecutive season after recording a .997 fielding percentage with only one error at first base. He also was named an American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) Second-Team All-Mideast Region selection and Gold Glove winner and a First-Team All-Ohio Athletic Conference honoree. Offensively, he led the OAC with a BW single-season record 58 RBI and finished second in the league with 10 homeruns. He batted .350 with a team-high 14 doubles and scored 33 runs. For his career, Kreisher was a .347 hitter with 16 homers, 130 RBI, 42 doubles and 100 runs scored. He also holds the school career-record with 961 putouts.
Kidd earned the Big Stick Award after batting .413 with 22 extra-base hits and 40 RBI. A two-time ESPN THE MAGAZINE Academic All-American (2008 and 2009),Kidd also earned first-team All-OAC honors and second-team ABCA All-Mideast Region status in 2009. He ranked fourth in the OAC with his .413 batting average (62-of-150) and led the league with six triples and 23 stolen bases in 26 attempts. He finished his career as the school's all-time leader in hits (184), runs scored (143), triples (14) and hit-by-pitches (25). He also had more stolen bases (62) and a higher batting average (.387) than any other Yellow Jacket since 2000.
Nealon and Stoper were the co-winners of the Yellow Jacket Award. It is given annually to the exemplary baseball student-athlete who demonstrated a year-round dedication to baseball and to the team, as well as the positive attitude toward the game, his teammates, along with a work ethic and a style of unselfish play and leadership, that, if emulated by anyone, would make for a better player and a better teammate." Stoper also was the recipient of the Outstanding Freshman Award last season.
The Yellow Jackets finished the season at 19-19 overall and have had three 19-win seasons in the past four years. In addition to continued success on the diamond, B-W once again excelled in the classroom with 25% of the team earning a spot on the 2009 Spring Semester Dean's List and 54% of the team sporting a GPA of 3.0 or better. Overall, the Yellow Jackets carry an outstanding 3.059 team GPA into next year.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, please contact B-W Sports Information Director Kevin Ruple by telephone at 440-826-2327, by FAX machine at 440-826-2329 or via e-mail at kruple@bw.edu. To contact Head Coach Bob Fisher, please call 440-826-2182 or e-mail at rfisher@bw.edu .
