Wheeling, W. Va. - With the 2024 Mountain East Conference (MEC) Baseball tournament kicking off on Wednesday, the conference released their annual All-MEC honorees. Six Wheeling University Baseball players were honored for their contributions during the season, with two of those earning First Team All-MEC honors. Redshirt Senior Kenny Jinks and junior Braden Killens would each earn First Team All-MEC honors after leading the Cardinals to the #3 seed in the MEC North Division.
The 2024 season was a rollercoaster for the Cardinals, and they started things off strong as they began the year in non-conference play. They went 9-3 over their first 12 games of the season, before starting MEC play against the MEC South Division. They opened their conference slate against Charleston and West Virginia State, falling in four games, but bounced back the next weekend with a 3-1 effort against West Virginia Wesleyan and Davis & Elkins. The Cardinals would end up splitting their 12 games against the South Division and headed into MEC North play sitting at 6-6. They would continue that split trend throughout the division, splitting three of their four series in the division, with a series loss to Frostburg State being the only blemish. It brought them to 25-24 on the year and 13-15 heading into MEC Tournament play.
For Braden Killens, it is the second All-MEC honor of his career and the first First Team All-MEC honor. Killens was the team's leading run producer on the year, hitting a single-season record 16 home runs and tying the single-season RBI record at 54, while sitting second on the team with a .350 average. He enters the tournament tied for the conference lead in home runs with West Virginia State's Mike Huber and Frostburg State's Ethan Kiple, while leading the conference in RBI. He has also wrote his name in the Cardinal's history books, setting the new career home run record (28) and RBI record (108), while also breaking the single-season home run record, which he set last season.
For Kenny Jinks, it is also the second All-MEC honor of his career as well as the first First Team All-MEC honor of his career. Jinks was a workhorse for the Cardinal's pitching staff, logging a team-high 63.2 innings of work in 12 games, 11 games started. He holds a 5-3 record with a 4.66 ERA, sitting second on the team in both wins and ERA among eligible starting pitchers. He also leads the team with a career-high 73 strikeouts in 63.2 innings of work while walking 21 and allowing 68 hits. His 73 strikeouts puts him second in the MEC behind West Virginia State's Chris Morris, while he has logged the most innings of anyone in the MEC this season.
Jinks and Killens become the 29th and 30th different Wheeling University Student-Athlete to earn All-Conference honors this season, and the third and fourth honorees of the spring season. They join Wheeling Men's Lacrosse players Austin Hall and Mike Andersson in earning honors for the spring season, with both earning the second All-Conference honors of their career. They are two of the six total honorees for the Cardinals, sitting just two shy of their total number of honorees a season ago.
The rest of the Wheeling Baseball All-MEC honorees will be unveiled in about an hour and a half right here at wucardinals.com.
