ANNVILLE, Pa. – On Monday morning, the Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) announced their All-MAC Commonwealth teams for the 2023 baseball season. Among the honorees were seven Messiah Falcons with three First Team honors and four Second Team accolades this season.
Sam Zercher,
Joshua Ammons, and
Noah Barrall were all honored on the First Team while
Nathan Stein,
Dustin Isanogle,
Dylan Beard, and
Evan Wagaman claimed Second Team honors. Messiah's seven honors this season are their most in a single season from the conference since the 2015 team also earned seven All-Conference accolades.
For Ammons, Barrall, and Beard the All-Conference honors are the first of their careers while Zercher, Stein, Wagaman, and Isanogle all picked up the second conference accolades of their career. Last season,
Dustin Isanogle was named the MAC Commonwealth Rookie of the Year while earning a spot on the First Team. Zercher, Stein, and Wagaman all claimed Honorable Mention nods a year ago.
This year,
Sam Zercher led the Falcons in nearly every offensive category highlighted by a program record 11 home runs and 41 RBI in 40 games. Zercher was also tops on the team in hits (50), slugging (.716), and doubles (14) while finishing second in batting average (.355), on-base percentage (.453), and runs (35). As mentioned, Zercher set a new program record for home runs with 11 this season. He hit home runs in back-to-back games on three different occasions while hitting two against Dickinson on Mar. 22 in maybe his finest game of the season. Against the Red Devils, Zercher went 3-5 with two home runs, six RBI, two runs scored, and a stolen base. In 11 of Messiah's 40 games, Zercher drove home multiple runs, led by that six RBI performance against Dickinson in late March.
Joshua Ammons earned his first career All-Conference honor by anchoring the middle of the Falcons order this season. Playing first base, Ammons was named First Team All-Conference and led the Falcons in batting average with a .372 mark this season while knocking a dozen extra-base hits with three home runs, two triples, and seven doubles. Ammons collected 26 RBI while scoring 34 runs and stealing 11 bases. His .964 OPS, .437 on-base percentage, and .527 slugging percentages were third on the team behind Zercher and Wagaman.
Relief pitcher
Noah Barrall earned his first career All-Conference honor after a stellar sophomore season in Grantham. Coming out of the bullpen, Barrall allowed just seven earned runs on the season across 22.0 innings pitched. His ERA of 2.86 was the lowest on the team by over two full runs. He finished the season with a 5-1 record with a pair of saves and 23 strikeouts. Barrall appeared in 15 games for the Falcons with his best outing coming against the Eastern Eagles on Apr. 2. Across three scoreless innings in Game Two of the doubleheader, Barrall struck out seven batters while allowing just one walk and no hits to earn the save, helping the Falcons to a 6-3 victory.
Evan Wagaman was named to the Second Team after spending the majority of the season in right field and filling in at first base on occasion. The sophomore belted six home runs, including a walk-off grand slam on Apr. 25 against Wilson to give Messiah the 8-7 victory. Wagaman drove home 37 runs on the season and brought home multiple runs in 11 different games this season. His .315 batting average was third on the team, but he consistently hit balls hard and finished with the second-highest OPS on the team at 1.046 thanks to a .455 on-base percentage and .591 slugging percentage. Wagaman led the team in walks with 29 on the season while also knocking 18 extra-base hits with six home runs, five triples, and seven doubles. He also stole 12 bases on 13 attempts.
Last year's Rookie of the Year in the Conference,
Dustin Isanogle earned a spot on the Second Team after another strong season for the Falcons. Isanogle finished the year with a .268 batting average, 17 RBI, 13 doubles, and a team-leading 38 runs scored. Isanogle also finished the season with just nine strikeouts in 149 at bats, the fewest for a Falcon with at least 40 at bats. Isanogle's main impact was behind the plate where he held a .979 fielding percentage and caught 11 would-be base stealers for an impressive 39.3% caught stealing percentage.
Despite missing the majority of the season due to injury,
Dylan Beard earned a spot on the Second Team. Beard played in just 19 games this year, but was a force while in the line-up. On the season he hit .333 with 21 hits in 63 at bats. He knocked five extra-base hits, including a home run while driving home 11 runs and scoring 12 from his second base position. Beard also stole seven bases while batting in the middle of the Falcons' order.
Nathan Stein was the Falcons lone starting pitcher to earn All-Conference accolades, claiming a spot on the Second Team. Stein held a 5.85 ERA on the season across 10 starts and 11 appearances, pitching 52.1 innings on the season. His conference numbers were even better, with the junior lefty, tossing 32.2 innings with a 3.03 ERA while carrying a 4-1 record with a pair of complete games. Stein struck out 50 batters on the season while allowing opponents to hit .266 on the year. His best game of the season came against the York Spartans were he carried a no-hitter into the top of the seventh. The no-no was broken up with one out on a single up the middle, but Stein still turned in a one-hit, complete game shutout to help the Falcons to a 4-0 victory over the Spartans.
As mentioned, this is the first time since 2015 that the Falcons have earned seven All-Conference accolades in a single season.
