Zion-Benton graduate Zack Creekmore became the first baseball player in Edgewood College (Madison, Wis.) history to receive All-American honors when website D3Baseball.com voted him a third-team All-American recently.
The senior second baseman led the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference regular season in batting average, slugging percentage, on-base percentage and runs batted in. He finished the year with a .418 batting average, including a .464 mark in NACC games.
Creekmore’s 50 RBIs made him just the fourth Eagle in program history to drive in at least 50 in a season. He was the only NACC baseball player named to the All-American teams or honorable mention list by D3Baseball.com.
Creekmore was also named the first-team second baseman on the All-Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference team, he was named first-team second baseman on D3Baseball.com’s All-Midwest Region team and was named to the ABCA/Rawlings NCAA Division III All-Midwest Region first team. Creekmore also made the NCAA D-III All-Region team, and was the third Edgewood player in history to do so.
Creekmore broke an 11-year old program record by reaching base safely in 31 consecutive games this season. He finished his career ranked among the top 10 Eagles in 11 different categories, including sixth in career batting average (.353) and eighth in RBIs (97).
Creekmore a 2011 graduate of Zion-Benton, will graduate from Edgewood with a bachelor’s degree in computer science and graphic design.
Also on the Edgewood (18-24) team was freshman Peter Peraldes from Grant. He played in several games and went 2-for-9 at the plate.
D-III World Series
Eight teams qualified for the NCAA Division III World Series in Appleton, Wis., and several area graduates were involved in the playoffs.
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The Webster (St. Louis) Gorlocks had three area graduates on the roster — senior outfielder Charlie Gandolfi from Mundelein, junior pitcher Zack Pawlowski from Mundelein and senior pitcher Zach Schneider from Warren.
Gandolfi was a starting outfielder and hit .317 with 24 walks for a .436 on-base percentage.
Schneider pitched in eight games in relief and worked eight total innings. Pawlowski pitched an inning in his only appearance.
The Emory (Atlanta) Eagles’ roster included junior Jack Karras from Stevenson.
Karras played in the infield and saw a lot of action but didn’t bat a lot and hit .172.
D-II World Series
Truman State University in Missouri qualified for the eight-team NCAA Division II World Series, and on the Bulldogs’ roster was freshman left-handed pitcher Matt Tometz from Deerfield.
He pitched in 11 games in relief, worked 16.1 innings and had a 2-1 record with a 3.31 ERA.
NJCAA D-II
Ten teams qualified for the National Junior College Athletic Association’s Division II World Series in Oklahoma, and one of the teams was Madison College from Wisconsin.
Playing on the team was sophomore middle infielder Brandon Gibis from Wauconda.
A starter, Gibis hit .461 with two homers and 30 RBIs. He also had 12 walks and was hit by 10 pitches so he had an on-base percentage of .517. Gibis also did some pitching, making seven appearances and working nine innings without allowing an earned run.