Steven Diaz’s power surge earned him a high spot on the baseball all-conference team.
The Westminster senior was named first-team all-St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and was one of six Blue Jays to earn spots on the postseason team. New Bloomfield graduate Derek Shikles, Hayden Hirschvogel and Payton Whitehead each made the second team while Quin Adelson and Bode Gebbink each made the third team.
Diaz set new career-highs in home runs (8) and doubles (9) while leading the team in each category. He hit all eight of his home runs and four of his doubles in the final nine games of the season, carrying a .425 average in that span. Diaz was one hit shy (42) of tying Shikles for the team lead, owned a .318 average and led the team with 13 stolen bases.
Shikles was second in batting average (.381) behind Adelson’s team-best .388 and was also behind a leading Adelson in on-base percentage, recording a .463 percentage compared to Adelson’s .505. Shikles led the team with 34 RBI and 34 runs while also finishing with seven doubles and six home runs.
Hirschvogel was second on the team with 28 RBI, hitting seven doubles and four home runs to finish with a slugging percentage of .495.
Whitehead served as the team’s leadoff hitter, drawing a team-high 17 walks and finishing with 35 hits and a .421 on-base percentage.
Adelson was the team leader in slugging with a percentage of .713, hitting 14 extra-base hits, seven doubles and five home runs, in 80 at-bats this season. The extra-base hits ranked third on the team behind Diaz’s 19 and Shikles’ 16. He owned a .388 batting average and .505 on-base percentage. Adelson was also the Blue Jays’ representative on the SLIAC All-Sportsmanship team.
Gebbink is the lone Westminster pitcher to earn all-SLIAC honors this season after throwing a second-most 56 innings with a 5.30 ERA. He ranked second on the team in strikeouts per nine innings with 8.36, which was behind Matt Trout’s 8.85.