Baseball Honors Roll In
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AZUSA, Calif. -- Azusa Pacific’s second straight trip to the NAIA World Series resulted in a set of postseason awards highlighted by the selection of senior shortstop Matt Venegas and junior centerfielder Kirk Nieuwenhuis to the NAIA All-American first team. Their selection marks the first time in program history that the Cougars have placed 2 players on the first team in back-to-back seasons, and it is Azusa Pacific’s fourth season with 2 NAIA All-American first team selections.
In addition, senior Stephen Kohatsu earned second-team recognition as a designated hitter, marking just the second time 3 Azusa Pacific players have earned NAIA All-American honors in the season.
Junior rightfielder Drew Evans and junior pitcher Jonny Bravo were named to the 2008 AVISTA-NAIA Baseball All-Tournament Team for their individual efforts in last week’s NAIA World Series in Lewiston, Idaho, and junior pitcher Garrett Lebsock was named a Daktronics-NAIA Baseball Scholar-Athlete for the second straight season to round out the Cougar postseason honors.
Venegas, the 2008 GSAC Player of the Year, was Azusa Pacific’s leadoff hitter and starting shortstop in all 58 games of the Cougars’ 46-12 campaign, and his 261 at-bats broke the program’s single-season record of 245 at-bats set just a season ago by Scott Hodsdon. He nearly broke an additional 3 single-season marks, all held by 2007 alum Stephen Vogt. Venegas registered 102 hits, 6 shy of Vogt’s 108 a year ago, and collected 25 doubles and 66 singles, both totals just 1 short of Vogt’s program-record 2007 totals.
In just 2 years, Venegas also moved into the top 10 in several categories on the Cougar career charts. He scored 142 runs, good for sixth all-time at Azusa Pacific, his 182 career hits places him ninth all-time, and his 38 doubles is the eighth-highest Cougar career total. His .378 career average ranks 11th in program history, and he registered 481 at-bats for 13th on the career list.
Nieuwenhuis, meanwhile, is just the fifth Azusa Pacific junior to earn NAIA All-American first team recognition, earning the honor with a standout campaign in which he batted .400 (90-for-225) with a program single-season record 84 runs, along with 20 doubles, 15 home runs and 68 RBIs. Nieuwenhuis also claimed a pair of Azusa Pacific career records, setting marks for runs (190) and triples (12).
Kohatsu hit a team- and conference-high 21 home runs and led the GSAC with 71 RBIs to lead one of the NAIA’s most prolific offenses in 2008. He batted .386 (88-for-228) overall to go with a team-high .728 slugging percentage that ranked second in the conference.
Evans, one of five Cougars with 10 or more home runs in 2008, earned All-Tournament honors with his 3-game NAIA World Series performance in which he belted 2 home runs and drove in a team-high 8 of Azusa Pacific’s 27 runs. Evans was 5-for-13 (.385) with 4 runs, a double, a walk and a stolen base in the Cougars’ 3 games of the 2008 championship.
Bravo, meanwhile, turned in his top pitching effort on the national stage for the second straight year, tossing a complete-game gem for the Cougars’ lone win of the tournament. He registered a career-high 11 strikeouts, scattering 2 runs on 8 hits for Azusa Pacific’s 9-2 win over Ohio Dominican in an elimination game. In 2007, Bravo struck out his previous career-high 10 in an elimination-game win over Lee (Tenn.).
Lebsock, a junior right-handed reliever and mathematics major, appeared in 21 games for the Cougars and earned the Daktronics-NAIA Baseball Scholar-Athlete award, given to recipients who have a cumulative 3.5 GPA or better and have achieved junior or above academic standing.
The full lists of 2008 NAIA All-Americans, 2008 AVISTA-NAIA World Series All-Tournament Team and Daktronics-NAIA Scholar Athletes can be found through the following links:
2008 NAIA Baseball All-Americans