Wheeling, W. Va. - On Wednesday, the Mountain East Conference (MEC) released their annual postseason awards with five Wheeling University Baseball players making the list. Earlier today, we announced the two players who earned All-MEC First Team honors, designated hitter J.R. Heavilin and outfielder Jack Skantze, and now it's time to release the three players that won All-MEC Honorable Mention. Third baseman Jacob Murray, outfielder Blake Vandiver, and left-handed pitcher Hayden Scudder were recognized for their work during the season.
For the Cardinals, the five award winners was another strong showing on the postseason awards list, after they had eight players recognized as All-MEC a season ago. They have one more Honorable Mention award winner than the previous season as the Cardinals finished 22-27 overall and a strong 18-14 in MEC play. While they didn't accomplish their goal of making it to the MEC playoffs and the NCAA Regional Tournament, they saw big contributions throughout the lineup and pitching staff as they look to get back there next season.
Leading the list of Wheeling Baseball's Honorable Mentions is left-handed pitcher Hayden Scudder, who went from a bullpen arm at the start of the season to a prominent member of the starting rotation. He finished the year going 5-1 with a 3.40 ERA over 47.2 innings of work while walking 11 and striking out 40 batters. In the month of April, Scudder made the transition to starter and had the best month of his season. He allowed just one earned run through his first three starts and ended the month with a 3.37 ERA to drop his season ERA to under four. He was second on the Cardinals in strikeouts (40) and allowed the fewest earned runs among Cardinals starters as he earned his first All-MEC honors.
Up next was another middle-of-the-order bat for the Cardinals as Jacob Murray earned his second straight All-MEC nod as an Honorable Mention. Murray was the only Cardinal to start all 49 games this season and hit .278 with six home runs and 34 RBI while reaching base at a .333 clip. Murray had the third most at-bats in the MEC this season and racked up 42 hits, with just over half of those hits going for extra bases. He set a new career-high with four triples and six home runs and added 12 doubles to his ledger, spending most of his time in the #5 spot in the batting order.
The final All-MEC Honorable Mention award winner was outfielder Blake Vandiver, who earned the first All-MEC accolade of his career. Vandiver was a spark plug in the two hole for the Cardinals, batting .370 with 20 RBI. He only had 10 extra base hits during the season, but he used his legs to consistently get into scoring position. He led Wheeling with 21 steals on the season while ranking second in the MEC in stolen bases. To go along with his offensive numbers, Vandiver was also one of the best defenders in the league not committing an error in 80 chances in left field. He was one of just three eligible players in the MEC this season to not commit an error, while making some incredible diving and leaping catches.
With the announcement of the All-MEC Baseball teams, Wheeling University has now had 28 student-athletes receive All-Conference honors during the 2021-2022 athletic year. Baseball leads all spring sports with five honorees after Men's Lacrosse had two award winners in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (GMAC) and Softball had one All-MEC honoree with Autumn Oehlstrom earning First Team honors.
The Wheeling University Baseball team now enters the off-season as they look to build off another strong season and get back to the MEC playoffs for the second time in three seasons.
