UNCW Cleans Up As CAA Announces Accolades

WILMINGTON, N.C. – Anchored by Colonial Athletic Association Player-of-the-Year Mark Carver (Wendell, N.C./East Wake) and Rookie-of-the-Year Cameron Roth (Poquoson, Va./Denbeigh), UNC Wilmington has placed a school-record nine players on the league’s all-conference squad.

Joining the nine Seahawks, recognized Tuesday night on the eve of the 22nd CAA Baseball Championship, was popular skipper Mark Scalf, who shared Coach-of-the-Year honors with George Mason’s Bill Brown.

The top-seeded Seahawks open play in the four-day, double elimination event Wednesday night with a 7 p.m. clash against No. 6 Towson.

UNCW featured six players on the first team, a high water mark for the emerging program. Earning First-Team honors were Carver, fellow seniors Daniel Hargrave (Hurdle Mills, N.C./Orange), Nate Hall (Coalfield, Tenn./Pensacola JC), Jason Appel (Plainview, N.Y./Plainview JFK) and Jeff Hatcher (Raleigh, N.C./Garner) and junior Brad Holt (Albemarle, N.C./Albemarle). Freshmen Cody Stanley (Clinton, N.C./Clinton), Stephen Harrold (Raleigh, N.C./Leesville Road) and Roth nabbed All-Rookie spots.

UNCW closed out the regular season with a school-record 41-13-1 mark and established a new conference standard at 25-4-1. After losing five of its first six outings, the Seahawks turned it around with a 21-game winning streak, the longest in the nation this season.

Carver, who is hitting .364 with 21 home runs and 78 runs batted in, enters the tournament on the verge of breaking several school and conference records. He has started all 55 games and needs one more run scored to tie the UNCW single-season record of 69 set in 2005 by Tim Preston. The veteran slugger is also tied with Bryan Britt, who hit 21 homers in 1996.

Roth gave the Seahawk bullpen an immediate lift when he opened his collegiate career by pitching 21 innings without allowing an earned run. He posted a 1.94 earned run average while fashioning a 5-2 mark with three saves. Opponents hit just .204 against the crafty lefthander.

Scalf, meanwhile, earns his fourth CAA Coach-of-the-Year honor, last winning the award in 2005. The 17th-year coach posted his fifth 40-win campaign in the last six seasons. UNCW broke into the national rankings for the first time, climbing as high as 17th in Collegiate Baseball’s poll.

Hargrave, Hall and Appel have joined Carver in fueling UNCW’s run-scoring machine. Hargrave is second on the club with 17 home runs and is tied with Hall for second with 57 runs batted in. Both totals are career-highs for Hargrave, who is also second all-time at UNCW with 38 career homers.

Hall, too, has had a career year by hitting .343 with 12 home runs and drawing a team-leading 38 walks. Appel leads the Seahawks with a .400 batting average and 19 stolen bases. He ranks third in the nation as toughest to strikeout, fanning just nine times in more than 250 total plate appearances. Earlier this season, Appel set a school-record when he went 67 at bats between strikeouts.

Hatcher and Holt round out the first-team selections for the Seahawks. The pair has combined to post a 15-2 ledger in 26 starts. Hatcher owns a 6-1 mark and ranks second on the staff with a 4.21 ERA. Holt has won nine straight decisions and stands 9-1 entering the conference tournament. The hard-throwing righthander has struck out a career-high 85 batters this season and ranks among the conference leaders with a 3.40 ERA. Hatcher, who has walked just 14 batters in a team-high 83 1/3 innings, is among the conference leaders in ERA.

Stanley and Harrold join Roth on the All-Rookie squad. Stanley batted .308 with nine doubles, five homers and 32 runs batted in, while Harrold collected a freshman record six saves in 26 appearances. Harrold limited opposing hitters to a .234 batting average, fanning 31 in 30 2/3 innings. -Courtesy UNCW Sports Information

-- Jesse Jones, CAPE FEAR SPORTS REPORT