NIIC Announces Baseball All-Conference

AURORA, Ill. May 17, 2005 - The Northern Illinois-Iowa Conference announced the 2005 baseball All-Conference team. Aurora University’s Spartan baseball team, conference champions and tournament champions, placed six players on the Northern Illinois-Iowa Conference (NIIC) All-Conference team and two Honorable Mention NIIC All Conference.

Senior outfielder Jay Lavender (Oswego, Ill./Oswego HS), senior first baseman Brian Chelgren (Munster, Ind./Thornwood HS), senior third baseman Brian Brandenburg (Batavia, Ill./Batavia HS), junior outfielder John Hopkins (Lockport, Ill./Lockport HS), junior pitcher Brady Salter (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield Central HS), and sophomore outfielder Jay Zimmerman (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield Central HS) were named First-Team All-Conference by the NIIC baseball coaches. Senior pitcher George Creviston (Rockford, Ill./Guilford HS) and junior shortstop Aaron Thor (Rockford, Ill./Guilford HS) were named Honorable Mention NIIC All-Conference.

In conference action, Lavender led AU with a .493 batting average with 11 doubles, one triple, three home runs, 25 runs batted in, and 26 runs scored; Chelgren hit .403 with five doubles, one triple, two home runs, 22 runs batted in, and 19 runs scored; Brandenburg hit .458 with four doubles, three home runs, 22 runs batted in, and 23 runs scored; Hopkins hit .448 with seven doubles, one home run, and 27 runs scored; Salter was 5-0 with a 3.48 earned run average, and 25 strikeouts in 33-2/3 innings pitched; while Zimmerman hit .446 with five doubles, four home runs, 24 runs batted in, and 24 runs scored. While Honorable Mention selections Creviston had a 3-1 record with a 3.68 earned run average and 27 strikeouts in 29-1/3 innings pitched and Thor hit .361 with eight doubles, three home runs, 23 runs batted in, and 20 runs scored.

AU’s baseball team is currently 34-7 on the season and finished 14-4 in the NIIC, while capturing the regular-season conference championship and their second consecutive Conference Tournament Championship, which carried the NIIC automatic bid into the 2005 NCAA Division III baseball championships.

The AU baseball team is in action in the NCAA tournament on Thursday, May 19, 2005, at the Central Regional in Bloomington, Ill. The Spartans are the No. 1 seed in the six-team regional and will take on No. 6 seed Ripon College. Game time for AU is set at 12:00 p.m. (noon) at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Ill.

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