No. 26 Kent State Baseball's Chafin, Hallock Earn National Recognition
6/16/2011 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
KENT, Oho -- Redshirt sophomore left-handed starting pitcher Andrew Chafin (Wakeman, Ohio) and senior southpaw starting pitcher Kyle Hallock (Sandusky, Ohio) each recently received national honors for their performances with the Kent State baseball team during the 2011 season.
Chafin was named a Second Team 2011 Perfect Game College All-America selection while Hallock was named to the inaugural College Baseball Lineup All Star Team. The pair helped the Golden Flashes rank sixth in the nation in team ERA with a 2.66 mark under the tutelage of associate head coach/pitching coach Mike Birkbeck.
The duo helped lead Kent State (45-17), which is ranked No. 26 in the nation according to the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper, to Mid-American Conference regular season and tournament championships and a berth in the 2011 NCAA Championship Austin Regional. After earning the program's first-ever national tournament No. 3 seed, Kent State tallied an 11-inning 4-2 win over Texas State and followed it with a 7-5 winner's bracket final triumph over regional host and No. 5-ranked Texas to earn the school's second-ever berth in a regional final. The Flashes became the first squad to win three straight MAC Tournament crowns and first since 2005 to win the conference's regular season and tournament titles in the same season. Kent State's mark of 45-17 matched the 1992 squad for most victories in program history.
Chafin, who was selected by the Arizona Diamondbacks with the 43rd pick in the compensatory first round of the 2011 MLB First-Year Player Draft, finished the 2011 campaign with an 8-1 record, posting 105 strikeouts over 89.0 innings. Chafin's 2011 strikeout total ranks as the third-most in a single season in the Kent State record books and is tied for the 33rd-most in the country this season, while his 10.62 strikeouts per nine innings is good for 18th in the nation. His 2.02 ERA ranks 36th in the country.
Hallock, who was drafted by the Houston Astros in the 10th round of the 2011 MLB First-Year Player Draft with the 292nd pick, closes his career out with the second-most career strikeouts (237) in school history. He also ranks third in career innings pitched (297.0), fifth in career pitching wins (22) and seventh in career pitching appearances (65). He was named the 2011 MAC Pitcher of the Year, becoming the ninth Kent State arm to garner such distinction. He finished his senior campaign with a 10-4 record, tying for the second-most wins in a single season in Kent State history and ties him for 23rd in the country in pitching victories in 2011. Hallock's 106.1 innings pitched and 88 strikeouts rank second and tied for sixth, respectively, in a single-season for the Golden Flashes while his ERA of 1.95 is the 10th-best in a single season in school history and ranks 29th in the nation this season. He chose to return to Kent State for his senior campaign after being picked by the Philadelphia Phillies in the 49th round of the 2010 draft and was appointed as one of Kent State's co-captains for the 2011 season.
