By: Ryan Sosic '19
Complete 2018 All-Ohio Athletic Conference team (.pdf)
AUSTINTOWN, Ohio- Six Baldwin Wallace University baseball student-athletes have been selected to the 2018 All-Ohio Athletic Conference team.
Sophomore outfielder Dudley Taw (Sheffield Lake/Brookside), senior outfielder Alex Marcum (Granville) and junior pitcher Danny Cody (Medina/Brecksville-Broadview Heights) were each named to the first team. Senior outfielder Chase Knodle (Poland/Seminary) and senior pitcher Evan Lovick (Mentor) both earned second team honors. Senior catcher Trent Kaltenbach (Plain City/Jonathan Alder) was tabbed as an honorable mention selection.
Taw earns his first All-OAC selection after a career 2018 campaign. The sophomore leads the team with a career-high batting average (.386) and home runs (12) through 39 appearances. He is second the team with 59 hits and 42 runs batted in (RBIs). The outfielder hit his first career home run in a 13-1 win over Oberlin College on February 25 and hit a grand slam for a career-high four RBIs in a 9-3 win versus Thiel (Pa.) College on March 18. He tied the record for most stolen bases in a contest with four against Babson (Mass.) College on March 4. In his two seasons, Taw has appeared in 62 games, netting a batting average of .353 and hitting a total of 12 home runs and 48 RBI.
Marcum garners his second straight first-team selection after batting a career-high .352 through 41 appearances. The senior is third on the team with a career-best 58 hits, has hit a career-best tying 10 doubles and is second on the squad with 11 home runs. Marcum was named Ohio Athletic Conference Hitter of the Week for April 23. The outfielder has amassed a .323 career batting average, 17 home runs, 33 doubles and 101 runs scored in 148 total games for the Yellow Jackets.
Cody garners his first All-OAC selection after making 14 appearances (12 starts) and pitching a total of 69.0 innings during the 2018 regular season. Overall, the junior registered a 5-3 record, a 2.48 earned run average and led the team for the second consecutive season with 87 strikeouts. Through three seasons, Cody has appeared in 42 games, tallying eight wins and seven losses through 127.0 innings pitched. He has struck out 140 batters and has a career ERA of 3.97.
Knodle earns his first All-OAC accolade after a career senior season in which he appeared in 41 games. He led the team with a career-best 60 hits and was second on the team with a career-high .366 batting average. The senior recorded a career-best 29 RBIs and two home runs, with his first coming against Bluffton University on March 5. The outfielder was named Ohio Athletic Conference Hitter of the Week on March 12. In four years in Berea, Knodle netted a .327 career batting average, 49 RBIs, 103 hits and 21 doubles.
Lovick garners his fourth consecutive All-OAC honor. He complied a team best, career-best tying and tied a BW single-season record with eight wins through a team-high and career-high 83.2 innings in 13 starts. He was second on the team with a career-best 53 strikeouts and was third on the squad with a 3.01 ERA. In his four seasons, Lovick is the winningest pitcher in BW history with 24 wins. In total, he has pitched 251.1 innings and registered a 2.69 career ERA. He has tied the record for most wins (8) in a season twice. He is a two-time America Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA)/Rawlings All-Mideast Region second-team selection and won BW's Most Outstanding Pitcher Award three times.
Kaltenbach earns his second All-OAC selection after batting .283 in 38 appearances for the Brown and Gold this season. He has tallied a career-high 26 runs batted in and stole a career-high tying eight bases. The senior registered 41 hits and is tied for third in home runs with three. In his four year career, the catcher has made 499 plate appearances and registered a .287 batting average in 148 games.
The Yellow Jackets won the 2018 OAC Tournament after defeating the regular-season champion Otterbein University Cardinals by a score of 15-6 in the championship game. BW moves into the 2018 NCAA Division III Tournament as the No. 4 seed in the Auburn, New York, regional and will take on fifth-seeded Swarthmore (Pa.) College on Thursday, May 17, at Falcon Park.
