Duncan, Murray Receive MAC's Highest Honors; Six Other Flashes Named All-MAC
5/23/2017 9:11:00 PM | Baseball
The Mid-American Conference announced its postseason awards on Tuesday night with Head Coach Jeff Duncan named 2017 Coach of the Year and Joey Murray named the 2017 MAC Pitcher of the Year.
Murray was joined by Luke Burch, Eli Kraus and Dylan Rosa on the First Team. Tim DalPorto and Mason Mamarella were named to the Second Team. DalPorto and Dom Iero made the All-Defensive team.
Duncan earns his second consecutive MAC Coach of the Year honor after leading the Golden Flashes to another outright regular season championship in 2017. At 35-16, Kent State has been ranked nationally for the past few weeks in Collegiate Baseball's national poll. The team sits at 19th in the nation heading into the postseason and also leads the country with 22 road wins.
Murray sits atop the conference in ERA with a 1.98 and also leads in strikeouts with 102 on the season. The sophomore holds a 6-1 record through 13 starts. Murray is the 12th Kent State pitcher all-time to earn the award and the second consecutive for the Flashes as Eric Lauer earned the accolade in 2016.
Burch is a back-to-back First Team honoree as he has sat at the top of the MAC in batting average for the majority of the season, entering the postseason hitting .362. Rosa was named Second Team All-MAC last season and moved up to the First Team this year by batting .322 with 12 homeruns and 44 RBI. Kraus is on the First Team for the second-straight season as he has a 2.98 ERA and 7-3 record.
DalPorto earns the first postseason honors of his career with All-MAC Second Team recognition. He is currently hitting .320 and has been impressive behind the plate, also earning him a spot on the All-Defensive Team. Mamarella was named an All-Defensive Team honoree his past two seasons before making the Second Team in 2017. He is 5th in the conference in batting average at .341.
Iero has impressed with solid plays at second base all season long while starting 49 of Kent State's 51 games fielding that position. He has just five errors in 232 chances while recording 96 putouts, 131 assists and has been a part of 31 double plays.
The Golden Flashes will begin competition in the 2017 MAC Tournament on Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. For the full release on the MAC awards, visit mac-sports.com.
