Junior baseball trio earns regional honors, Podbelski named top coach

May 16, 2007

NORTON, MA- Wheaton College baseball juniors Louie Bernardini (Gray, ME/Gray-New Gloucester), Chris McDonough (Weymouth, MA/Weymouth) and Jake Yagjian (Brewster, MA/Nauset Regional) each earned New England Intercollegiate Baseball Association (NEIBA) All-New England honors, and head coach Eric Podbelski was named the region's top coach for the fourth time in the last seven years. The trio was among just five New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) players on the all-region teams.

McDonough was selected to the first team after landing on the second squad last season. Bernardini also moved up one team, from third in 2006 to second this spring, while Yagjian drew a third-team laurel for the first honor of his collegiate career. Podbelski earned his accolade after only three Lyons were among 49 regional players to draw honors despite Wheaton being the top-ranked team in New England according to the NCAA, NEIBA and American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA). The Lyons are sixth in the ABCA's national poll and are currently competing in their seventh NCAA Tournament in eight seasons.

As one of four first-team pitchers, McDonough is 5-1 this season with a 1.56 earned run average. The southpaw, who was also named NEWMAC Pitcher of the Year while drawing his second all-league honor, has yielded a .188 opponent batting average and just three extra-base hits while striking out 54 and walking only nine in 57.2 innings. He has also tied a program record by spinning a pair of shutouts. McDonough entered the NCAA Tournament needing just nine strikeouts to match the school's career standard of 179. In his seven starts this season, McDonough has a 0.54 ERA after giving up just three earned runs in 49.2 innings.

Bernardini is one of four second-team hurlers and carries a 7-0 record and 2.34 ERA into the NCAA Tournament. He is tied for third on the squad with 34 strikeouts, while having walked only 15 batters in 57.2 innings, and has yielded a .225 batting average. Bernardini has made five starts in which he went at least five innings without allowing an earned run. In each of his final two starts leading up to the NCAA Tournament, Bernardini tossed eight innings of five-hit ball while striking out six batters, walking one and not giving up an earned run or extra-base hit.

Yagjian, one of the most unheralded players on the squad the past two seasons, is one of two third-team second basemen. He is first among Lyons in on-base percentage (.432), second in runs (36) and RBI (32), third in batting average (.353), hits (55) and stolen bases (9) and tied for third in walks (20). Yagjian is five hits shy of becoming the fourth Wheaton player with consecutive 60-hit campaigns, and he has reached base on either a hit, walk or hit by pitch in 41 of 43 games.

Podbelski, who earned his 300th career victory on May 4 in his 10th varsity season at the helm of the program, earned outright coach-of-the-year honors for the third time after sharing the award once before. The NEIBA Coach of the Year is also rewarded with the opportunity to coach the NEIBA Senior All-Star game at Fenway Park. The seven-time NEWMAC Coach of the Year has led the Lyons to a 32-11 mark this spring, as the Blue and White won its eighth conference tournament title and remained the lone squad to finish atop the regular season standings in the league's nine-year history. As the only head coach Wheaton baseball has ever known, Podbelski led the Lyons to a national runner-up finish in 2006.

The Lyons are currently taking part in the NCAA Division III New England Regional Tournament at Whitehouse Field in Harwich, as top-seeded Wheaton looks to repeat after winning the 2006 crown. The winner of the regional will be one of eight teams that advances to the national championship next week at Fox Cities Stadium in Grand Chute, Wisconsin.

This page is maintained by Scott Dietz. Last updated on 5/17/07.
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