Mount Vernon Nazarene College honored its men's baseball team at its annual banquet on Friday evening. (Baseball usually has its banquet in conjunction with softball and golf, but the team was competing at the NAIA Great Lakes Region Tournament when the banquet for the other two sports was held.)
The baseball team, which posted a 37-12 overall record and won the Mid-Ohio Conference regular-season and tournament titles, selected sophomore Andy Heimbach as its Most Valuable Player and senior Sean Barrett as its Cougar Award recipient.
Heimbach, a pitcher from Wheelersburg, Ohio, led the Cougars with an 11-2 record and a 2.16 earned run average. He tied his own school record by tossing five shutouts and became MVNC's career leader in shutouts with ten after just two seasons. He threw 11 complete games and struck out 84 batters in 91 2/3 innings of work.
Barrett, an outfielder from Brookville, Ohio, was one of just two seniors on this year's squad. He posted a .313 batting average 35 runs batted in, 36 runs scored, and a team-high nine homeruns. He also provided quality leadership both on and off the field as he epitomized what a Cougar baseball player should be.
Cougar Sports Associates also honored Phil Petrie, MVNC's Registrar, with a Cougar Appreciation Award. Petrie is well-known as a diehard Cougar fan for his support of the MVNC athletes. He will be retiring from MVNC this summer which should allow him the opportunity to attend even more Cougar games.