WICHITA, Kan. - Bradley Baseball had a program-record eight players earn All-Missouri Valley Conference honors, according to a release of the all-league team announced by the MVC office Tuesday morning.
Although the third-place Braves did not place a player on the All-MVC first team, Bradley dominated the second team with five honorees and added three more honorable mention selections. Bradley's eight selections equalled regular-season champion #8 Missouri State for the most in the league, one behind #11 Dallas Baptist, and are one more than the previous team-best seven all-conference picks in 2007.
Bradley's second-team All-MVC picks are junior starting pitcher Elliot Ashbeck (Marshfield, Wis./Marshfield H.S.), senior catcher Drew Carlile (Fort Collins, Colo./Poudre H.S.), sophomore closer Matt Dennis (Arlington Heights, Ill./Rolling Meadows H.S.), sophomore third baseman Spencer Gaa (Metamora, Ill./Metamora H.S.) and senior center fielder Isaac Smith (Richmond, Ky./Madison Central H.S.). The trio of honorable mention selections included junior starting pitcher Steve Adkins (Elmhurst, Ill./York H.S.), junior second baseman Chris Godinez (Lake Bluff, Ill./Lake Forest H.S.) and junior first baseman Paul Solka (Des Plaines, Ill./Maine West H.S.).
Steve Adkins | Jr. | RHP | Elmhurst, Ill. (York H.S.)
Adkins is 6-2 with a 2.87 earned run average and he boasts 56 strikeouts in his 53.1 innings this season.
Elliot Ashbeck | Jr. | RHP | Marshfield, Wis. (Marshfield H.S.)
Ashbeck is a semifinalist for the John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year Award, which recognizes the nation's top player who pitches and hits. Ashbeck leads the group of semifinalists and is tied for seventh nationally with 10 wins as Bradley's No. 1 starter and he is hitting .291 with a team-best 12 doubles and 29 RBI's in his 32 games as a hitter.
Drew Carlile | Sr. | C | Fort Collins, Colo. (Poudre H.S.)
Carlile is batting .287 and despite missing 12 games with a strained oblique, he leads the Braves with six home runs.
Matt Dennis | So. | RHP | Arlington Heights, Ill. (Rolling Meadows H.S.)
A candidate for the college baseball Stopper of the Year Award, Dennis ranks third in the Valley and is tied for 26th nationally with a single-season school record 11 saves. Dennis has not allowed a run in 19 of his 22 appearances and is 2-0 with a 1.40 ERA.
Spencer Gaa | So. | 3B | Metamora, Ill. (Metamora H.S.)
Despite battling through a trio of hamstring injuries that have allowed him to finish just 24 of Bradley's 50 regular-season games, Gaa is batting .358 with 28 RBI's in his 31 games and he has committed just five errors at the hot corner.
Chris Godinez | Jr. | 2B | Lake Bluff, Ill. (Lake Forest H.S.)
Godinez enters the MVC Baseball Championship ranked 12th nationally with a .492 on-base percentage. Aided by 40 bases on balls for the second-best total in Bradley history, Godinez has reached base safely in 26 consecutive games and in 39 of the 41 games he has played this year.
Paul Solka | Jr. | 1B | Des Plaines, Ill. (Maine West H.S.)
Solka has played a career-best 48 games this season and is batting .279 with 11 doubles, four home runs and 28 RBI's.
Isaac Smith | Sr. | OF | Richmond, Ky. (Madison Central H.S.)
Smith enters the MVC Baseball Championship with the league's fifth-best batting average (.342) and he has reached base safely in 40 of the 44 games he has played with multiple plate appearances. In the four games he did not reach safely, Smith drove in two runs in one, hit a game-winning sacrifice fly in another and laid down a sacrifice bunt in each of the other two.
The Braves (32-18, 10-11 MVC) are the No. 3 seed for this week's Missouri Valley Conference Baseball Championship. Bradley will face No. 6 seed Evansville (29-22, 8-13) in the tournament opener, a 9 a.m. first pitch Wednesday at Wichita State's Eck Stadium.
