Ten area players receive HOIC baseball honors

Clay Cooper made a gigantic improvement at the plate this season for the Prairie City-Monroe baseball team.

Cooper hit .271 and had an on base percentage of .374 during his sophomore campaign for the Mustangs. Those numbers improved to .463 and .533, respectively, this season and his efforts earned him a first-team outfielder nod as the Heart of Iowa Conference teams were released.

A total of 10 area players landed on one of the three HOIC teams.

Besides Cooper, the Mustangs also had senior catcher Jerod DeVries on the second team, while senior Connor Warrick and junior Austin Brown were both honorable mention selections.

Junior Brady Stover and senior Seth Balke were both second-team picks for Collins-Maxwell/Baxter, while sophomores Hunter McWhirter and Tucker Maxwell were honorable mention picks for the Raiders.

Colfax-Mingo had two players land on the honorable mention team — sophomore Adam Teed and freshman Misha Seebeck.

Cooper’s .463 average was second in the conference and the .533 on-base percentage was fifth. The junior also had seven doubles, 24 RBIs and eight stolen bases. He had just one error in center field and his fielding percentage of .976 led the Mustangs.

DeVries, a second-team catcher, hit .242 and had nine RBIs. He had 11 assists, 88 putouts and threw out seven runners attempting to steal a base.

Stover was a second-team pitcher after going 5-2 with one save. He had an earned run average of 1.58 with 91 strikeouts in only 44 1/3 innings pitched. Opposing teams hit only .171 against the South Dakota State commit and Stover had eight assists in center field.

Balke, a second-team infielder, was second on the team in batting at .346, had an OBP of .414 and scored a team-high 16 runs. He had eight steals, too. He had a .958 fielding percentage with only three errors and 46 assists.

Brown was PCM’s best pitcher. He was 4-3 with an ERA of 1.11. The junior lefty fanned 40 and walked only 14 in 38 innings. Brown also hit .325, had an OBP of .441 and drove in 13 runs.

Warrick batted .265 but reached base more than 53 percent of the time partly because of 19 walks and nine hit by pitches. He scored 13 runs.

McWhirter led CMB in hitting (.347), OBP (.443) and walks (10) and tied for second in walks with 13. He led the Raiders in fielding percentage at .974 and he threw out five runners trying to steal a base.

Maxwell had a CMB-best 11 RBIs and two home runs. He walked a team-high 10 times.

Seebeck hit .244 for the Tigerhawks and scored seven runs. His fielding percentage was .974. Teed scored eight runs, stole 10 bases and had a fielding percentage of .949.

CMB finished 10-15 overall and went 6-10 in HOIC play. PCM was 9-17 overall and 4-11 in league play. Colfax-Mingo was 5-23 overall and 0-18 in the HOIC.

Only two players were unanimously voted to the all-HOIC first team. Gilbert’s Nick Day led the league in hitting (.492) and runs scored (46) and also stole 18 bases. Gilbert’s Jared Geschiedler blasted five home runs and drove in 48.

Gilbert won the conference with a 17-1 record. Greene County and Saydel both went 14-4.

Contact Troy Hyde at
641-792-3121 ext. 6536
or thyde@newtondailynews.com