Kansas City, Mo. -- Nine Missouri Southern Baseball players have been named All-MIAA and senior outfielder
Johnny Balsamo earned a gold glove as they MIAA announced its postseason awards this morning.
Cory Canterbury earned third-team All-MIAA honors this year. Canterbury hit .329 and had a team-high 41 RBIs with five home runs. He had 22 doubles, the third-most in a single season in MSSU history and scored 33 runs.
Balsamo was one of eight Lions named honorable mention All-MIAA.
Zac Shoemaker,
Corbin Osburn,
Logan VanWey,
Alex Phillips,
Denver Coffee,
Mike Million and
Alec Alvarez all joined Balsamo in earning All-MIAA honors.
This season, Balsamo had a .982 fielding percentage and wowed the crowds at Warren Turner Field with his ability to track down nearly anything in the outfield. He finished the season with just two errors and 111 putouts. Balsamo also hit .298 with eight home runs and 35 RBIs.
Phillips led the Lions with a .339 batting average, while hitting nine home runs and driving in 39 runs.
Denver Coffee had a tremendous rebound to a slow start to the season. He hit just .135 to start the season, but hit .359 over the final 35 games to finish the season third on the team in batting at .305 with two home runs, 25 RBIs and nine doubles.
Alec Alvarez hit .283 on the season with four home runs and 31 RBIs and 12 doubles. He was one of the more versatile players on the team seeing action at five different positions.
Mike Million finished the season with a team-high ten home runs and was third on the team with 37 RBIs.
Zac Shoemaker led the team with five wins this year as the freshman went 5-4 with a 3.66 ERA and struck out 70 batters in 76.1 innings pitched.
Corbin Osburn was the Lions' Friday night starter all year long, going 4-4 with a 3.99 ERA and 85 strikeouts in 85.2 innings.
Logan VanWey proved to be the best option out of the bullpen this year as the freshman had a team-low 2.05 ERA in 17 appearances with three saves. He struck out 28 batters in 22 innings and limited hitters to a .238 batting average.
The three helped lead a pitching staff that set a new Missouri Southern single-season record with 422 strikeouts, breaking the previous mark of 410 set in 2015.
Nebraska-Kearney head coach Damon Day was named the MIAA Coach of the Year, while UNK's Alex Achtermann was named the Player of the Year. Emporia State's Seth Holman was the Pitcher of the Year, while Lindenwood's Tyler Cassmeyer was the Freshman of the Year.
