AZUSA, Calif. -- Brice Cutspec was recognized for his record-breaking junior campaign with his selection as the 2009 Golden State Athletic Conference Player of the Year, which highlighted the selection of 3 Azusa Pacific players to the 2009 All-GSAC baseball team. Cutspec’s selection was his third time as the All-GSAC first baseman, while first-year Cougars Ryan Delgado and Peter Gehle also earned All-GSAC recognition.

Cutspec’s third season with Azusa Pacific has been one for the record books, as the 6-foot-5 first baseman broke the program’s single-season and career home run records this season, along with the career RBI mark.

In the second-to-last game of the regular season, a 21-6 win over Cal State San Marcos, Cutspec hit his 27th home run of the year to break Scott Hodsdon’s single-season home run record. Entering the postseason, he now has a program-record 58 career home runs, besting the previous best career total of 44 held for 27 years by Marty Cordell. Cutspec also surpassed Stephen Vogt’s career RBI record of 199, driving in the 200th run of his 3-year career during the Cougars’ April 25 doubleheader at Biola. He enters the postseason with 166 total bases, just 25 short of Hodsdon’s 2007 single-season mark of 191, and he is on pace to shatter Azusa Pacific’s season slugging percentage record of .889.

Cutspec was this season’s GSAC leader in home runs, RBIs, slugging percentage, and total bases, and he ranks in the NAIA’s top 10 in each of those categories. In home runs, he trails only Oklahoma City third baseman Brent Weaver, who has hit 33 home runs on the season. Cutspec is the only player in the GSAC to appear in the conference’s top 10 in each of the following categories: batting average, slugging percentage, on-base percentage, runs, hits, RBIs, doubles, home runs, total bases and walks.

Delgado, meanwhile, helped provide outstanding protection for Cutspec in the middle of the lineup with what was a fine season in its own right. Delgado ranked second in the GSAC, behind only Cutspec, in home runs, RBIs and total bases, and he led the conference in hits. During conference play, Delgado was in the conference’s top 5 in batting average, slugging percentage, hits, doubles, home runs, RBIs and total bases. His 19 home runs in the regular season ranked eighth in the NAIA, and he ranks 11th in the nation with 68 RBIs.

Delgado started 42 games at third base, but due to injuries at the catcher position, ended up moving behind the plate for 10 games during the final month of the season. He threw out 7-of-13 baserunners on stolen-base attempts. At the plate, he put together a team-high 22-game hitting streak that spanned a month-and-a-half stretch of the season. He hit .448 (39-for-87) during the hitting streak with 9 doubles, 9 home runs, 24 runs and 32 RBIs.

Gehle, a 6-foot-6 junior lefthander, led the conference in total starts, registering a 6-3 record in 14 total starts with a pair of complete-game efforts. He fired a 9-inning complete-game 4-hitter against GSAC regular-season champion Point Loma Nazarene to lead Azusa Pacific to a 3-1 win over the Sea Lions in the first game of a March 21 doubleheader split. His season ERA was 3.23, good for fourth in the GSAC, and his 62 strikeouts ranked sixth in the conference. He surrendered the second-fewest home runs (4) among GSAC starting pitchers, including just 2 at the offense-friendly Cougar Baseball Complex. Azusa Pacific was 11-3 in the 14 games started by Gehle in the regular season.

The full all-GSAC team can be viewed at www.gsacsports.org.

Other Azusa Pacific postseason honorees included 2009 Baseball GSAC Scholar Athletes Garrett Lebsock, a senior pitcher, and junior pitcher Ryan Rosenhahn. The GSAC Scholar Athlete award honors student-athletes of junior or senior academic status who have maintained at least a 3.50 cumulative GPA.

Azusa Pacific kicks off its third consecutive playoff appearance in the opening game of the 5-team GSAC Postseason Tournament, hosted by Point Loma Nazarene. The Cougars are the tournament’s fourth seed, and they kick off the tournament with a 3 p.m. contest Monday, May 4, against fifth-seeded The Master’s.

The winner of the GSAC Tournament collects the conference’s second automatic bid to the 46-team field of the 2009 NAIA Baseball Championship. Azusa Pacific has been named as 1 of the 9 campus hosts for the Opening Round of the national tournament, which will consist of 9 separate 5-team double-elimination tournaments whose champions will join host Lewis-Clark State (Idaho) at the final site for the 10-team NAIA World Series in Lewiston, Idaho.