Wheeling, W. Va. – Ahead of this weekend's NCAA DII Baseball regional championships, the first round of postseason awards was released on Friday. The National Collegiate Baseball Writer's Association (NCBWA) released their annual All-Region teams, and the Wheeling University Baseball team placed two on this year's list. Senior pitcher Sebastian Khan and senior infielder Edward Mateo each earned First Team All-Region honors, marking the first Cardinals to earn the honor since the 2024 season.
Khan is taking home the first All-Region honor of his career, after being named the Mountain East Conference (MEC) Pitcher of the Year just this past season. Khan established himself as the top arm in the conference by finishing the year 9-2 with a 2.67 ERA over 84.2 innings of work while walking 25 and striking out 87. He would lead the conference in wins (9), ERA (2.02), opponent batting average (.181), and innings pitched (77.1) At the end of the regular season while sitting second in the MEC in strikeouts. Khan would set the Wheeling single season record with nine wins while tossing four complete games including one shutout. He would also be a part of program history, combining with two of his bullpen pitchers to throw the first no-hitter in program history in the regular season finale against West Liberty. The senior is a two-time All-MEC honoree, as he led the Cardinal pitching staff throughout the year.
Mateo is also taking home his first career All-Region honor, After winning the MEC's Hitter of the Year Award this past season. The senior infielder was a spark plug At the top of the Cardinal lineup, hitting . 428 with seven home runs and 39 RBI. Like Khan, Mateo also found himself a top the MEC leaderboards in several categories, including batting average, On-Base Percentage (.542), OPS (1.181), hits (77), and stolen bases (33). Of the 52 games he played in this season, he had a hit in 43 of them and was riding an 8-Game hitting streak to close out the season. Along with his work on offense, Mateo handled the defensive side of the ball. Well playing three different positions for the Cardinals throughout the season. He saw time at shortstop, second base, and centerfield while setting the program record with 33 stolen bases on the base paths.
With Khan and Mateo earning their All-Region honors, the Wheeling University athletic department has now had five All-Region honorees this season. For Wheeling Baseball program, It was the first NCBWA All-Region award for the team since the 2024 season, when former Cardinal Braden Killens earned Second Team All-Region honors. The last Cardinal program to be honored with All-Region awards was Wheeling Women's Basketball when Kenzie Dalton earned All-Region.
The Wheeling Baseball team is now in their off-season as they continue to build towards 2027.
