Eight Tigers named to All-GPAC baseball list

MITCHELL, S.D. – The Dakota Wesleyan University baseball team made a late-season push to earn a spot in the Great Plains Athletic Conference postseason tournament. The Tigers season landed eight players on the league's 2016 awards list.

Senior Cole Wenande (Alexandria, S.D.), redshirt junior Jonah Johnson (Kerkhoven, Minn.), senior Austin Calhoon (Winner, S.D.), junior Patrick Whetham (Garretson, S.D.), senior Dominic Sebastiani (San Francisco, Calif.), redshirt junior Tyler Waddle (Huron, S.D.), senior Dustin Steckler (Garretson, S.D.) and senior Neil Nagle (Oslo, Minn.) were all named All-GPAC Honorable Mentions, the league announced Wednesday.

Wenande finished his career with a strong senior season, batting .316 with 39 runs scored, 30 RBIs and 20 stolen bases. The honorable mention is the third straight for Wenande. After missing most of last season with an injury, Johnson posted a strong return season at the top of the DWU lineup, hitting .331 with a team-high 57 hits and 48 runs scored.

Nagle rounded out his career batting in the middle of the DWU order hitting a team-high .342 with 39 RBIs, five home runs, 53 total hits and 27 runs scored. Adding punch in the middle of the order, Calhoon hit a team-high six home runs and led the Tigers with 42 RBIs. Waddle was third on the team in hitting with a .330 average, while adding 13 RBIs and playing a sold third base for DWU. Sebastiani drove in 33 runs and scored 30, while totaling 50 hits and carrying a .292 average.

The Tiger pitching ace in 2016 was Steckler, who finished with a 4.94 ERA and 5-6 record. He led the Tigers with 74.2 innings pitched and 49 strikeouts. Steckler pitched three complete games including a 2-0 win over Mount Marty College to help the Tigers earn a spot in the GPAC tournament. Whetham closed the season strong, finishing with a 4.71 ERA, 4-5 record, 57.1 innings pitched, 39 strikeouts and two complete games.