NIIC Announces Baseball Postseason Awards

AURORA, Ill. May 17, 2005 - The Northern Illinois-Iowa Conference (NIIC) announced the 2005 baseball postseason awards and the AU baseball team, regular season and tournament champions, received the NIIC Player of the Year and Coach of the Year awards.

The NIIC baseball Player of the Year award went to senior outfielder Jay Lavender (Oswego, Ill./Oswego HS), while the NIIC baseball Coach of the Year award went to AU Head Baseball Coach Shaun Neitzel.

Lavender led the Spartans to back-to-back NIIC tournament championships and their first NIIC regular-season title since the 2002 season. While leading the Spartans to a 34-7 overall record and AU’s 16th NCAA regional appearance in school history, Lavender either led or is second in all offensive categories. In his final season as a Spartan, Lavender is hitting .424 with 18 doubles, three triples, nine home runs, 60 runs batted in, 52 runs scored, a .747 slugging percentage, .489 on-base percentage, and is 10-of-13 in stolen bases. In conference action, Lavender hit .493 with 11 doubles, one triple, three home runs, 25 runs batted in, 26 runs scored, a .821 slugging percentage, .556 on-base percentage, and was six-of-eight in stolen bases.

Neitzel led the Spartans to their second consecutive NIIC conference tournament title, the 16th NCAA appearance in school history, and the NIIC regular-season championship. In his three seasons at AU, Neitzel has compiled a 87-42-2 record, while going 36-18 in the NIIC.

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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