Wheeling, W. Va. – Ahead of the 2023 Mountain East Conference (MEC) Baseball Championships Presented by YES! Chevrolet and YES! Ford, the conference released their annual Year-End Baseball awards on Wednesday. After clinching the #2 seed in the MEC North Division, the Wheeling University Baseball team (28-20, 17-13) had eight total players honored, including three earning the distinction of a First Team or Second Team All-MEC Player. Senior infielder Jacob Murray earned First Team All-MEC honors at shortstop while infielder Braden Killens and starting pitcher Kody McCarley earned Second Team All-MEC honors at third base and starting pitcher, respectively.
The 2023 season has been a historic one for the Wheeling Baseball program, who played their 17th season as a program. They set the new single season win record when they swept West Liberty on the final day of their regular season, finishing 28-20 overall, and had the third most conference wins in program history with 17. After taking on the MEC South division over the first four weekends of the season, the Cardinals sat at 5-7 and looked to make up ground in divisional play. They ended up going 12-6 over their final 18 conference games of the year and clinched their spot as the #2 seed in the first of two scheduled doubleheaders against West Liberty. Unfortunately, rain washed away the last two conference games for the team, but with a playoff spot secured, the team looks to keep their historic season going.
Jacob Murray wins First Team All-MEC honors for the second time in his career and wins his third total All-MEC honor for the year. He was tied for the team-lead in home runs with 10 and, along with Killens, broke the single-season home run record. He posted a +.300 batting average for the second time in his career, hitting .315 across 130 at-bats and finished third on the team with 24 RBI. He currently sits 19 hits away from the program’s career hit record of 185 and needs just seven RBI entering tournament play to be the first Cardinal’s player to reach 100 career RBI. Murray has consistently been the Cardinal’s clean-up hitter throughout the season and looks to keep his success going as his team enters the tournament.
Braden Killens took home the first All-MEC honors of his career as he earned Second Team All-MEC as a third baseman. Killens leads or is tied for the team lead in the three big offensive categories hitting .348 with 10 home runs and 51 RBI. His 10 home runs are tied with Murray for the single-season home run record and his 51 RBI broke the program single-season record of 46, which was set by former Cardinal Chris Iazzetta last season. He has been one of the Cardinal’s top hitters down the stretch, getting at least one hit in six of the last seven games and is hitting .307 (8-26) during that stretch with three doubles, a home run, and eight RBI. He has gotten at least one hit in 31 out of his 43 games played and supplements Murray as the Cardinal’s #3 hitter in the order.
Kody McCarley rounds out the lot, taking home Second Team All-MEC honors for the first time in his career. McCarley owned the team’s lowest ERA among the starting pitching staff, sporting a 4.45 ERA across 12 games, 11 starts. He broke the single-season innings pitched record, logging 66.2 innings while striking out 70 and walking 31 batters while going 4-4 overall. He sits second in all the MEC with a .235 opponent batting average, while sitting fifth in ERA and third in strikeouts. He allowed three earned runs or less in nine of his 12 outings during the season and will be relied upon to start in some big-time games for the Cardinals in the tournament.
Stay tuned later this afternoon as we reveal the Honorable Mention All-MEC honorees, with four Cardinals earning that distinction. The Wheeling University Baseball team kicks off MEC Tournament play on Thursday, May 11th, when they take on #2S Concord with first pitch at 11 AM.
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