ROCK HILL — Newberry racked up four all-conference selections and a pair of Gold Glove winners in the South Atlantic Conference’s baseball postseason awards, announced today by the league office after a vote of SAC coaches.
Colin Allman, who enjoyed a breakout season at the shortstop position, earned first team honors, with center fielder Danton Hyman representing the Wolves on the second team. Left fielder Derek Olenchuk and starting pitcher Ryan Harbin were named honorable mention.
Olenchuk also earned the conference’s Gold Glove at left field, giving Newberry at least one player honored as both an all-conference performer and a Gold Glove winner for the sixth consecutive season. Second baseman Dalton Lansdowne also earned a Gold Glove for his defensive work.
Colin Allman – First Team Shortstop
Allman has started all 47 of Newberry’s games at the shortstop position this season. After hitting .225 in 40 at-bats with one extra-base hit a season ago, the diminutive sophomore burst onto the scene with a reached-base streak of 29 games to begin the season, a streak that stretched to 363 days when his final two games of 2017 are included.
Allman currently leads the team in hits (73), doubles (13), triples (2), home runs (8), and slugging percentage (.606). He has hit .388 on the season, one point behind Hyman for tops on the team among players with at least 60 at-bats, and has batted in 47 runs. He has also fielded .924 in his first full season at shortstop.
Allman earned a SAC and Southeast Region Player of the Week nod after hitting .588 with three doubles, a triple, and four home runs that included a win over Lander and a series win at Mars Hill. He went 4-for-6 with a triple and three home runs in the opening game of the Mars Hill series, including a 10th-inning solo shot and an 11th-inning grand slam.
Danton Hyman – Second Team Outfielder
Hyman has a .389 batting average, good for sixth in the SAC, and ranks 14th nationally with 26 stolen bases on the season. He leads the team with 26 multi-hit games this season and has had two hitting streaks of 13 games or longer during the season.
His 72 hits rank fifth in the conference and he is among the top 10 in five other offensive categories, including ranking seventh with a .489 on-base percentage. The center fielder has started every game and has made just one error in 139 defensive chances, throwing out two runners at the plate and four overall for a .993 fielding percentage.
Derek Olenchuk – Honorable Mention Outfielder
Newberry’s top run-producer has started all but one game this season, leading the team and ranking fourth in the conference with 52 runs batted in. His 69 hits rank 17th in Division II this season and he sports a .350 batting average and is second on the team in extra-base hits (18) and slugging percentage (.497).
Olenchuk has a team-high 16 multi-RBI games and is two off the team lead in multi-hit games with 24, including seven with three or more hits.
Ryan Harbin – Honorable Mention Starting Pitcher
A freshman from West Columbia, Harbin has cemented himself as Newberry’s second Saturday starter. The left-hander has made 12 starts this season, hurling four complete games and being lifted with two outs in the seventh inning in another.
He is 5-2 with a 4.30 ERA on the season with 61 strikeouts and 23 walks in 69 innings pitched. His most dominant start came in the rubber game of the weekend series at Tusculum in which he allowed one run on just two hits and struck out nine in a complete-game win. He also tossed a complete-game, four-hit shutout in a series clincher against Lincoln Memorial. Six times this season, Harbin has thrown five or more innings and given up three runs or fewer.
Derek Olenchuk – Gold Glove Left Fielder
Olenchuk also earned a Gold Glove for his defensive work, following in the footsteps of Daymon Totherow (2017) and Alex Kirby (2014) as Newberry outfielders to be recognized both as all-conference and a Gold Glove winner. He has made just one error for a .990 fielding percentage and leads the team with six outfield assists on the season, including throwing out a runner in three straight games in March and both ends of Saturday’s doubleheader at Anderson.
Dalton Lansdowne – Gold Glove Second Baseman
The freshman from Lexington has fielded at an impressive .980 clip during his first season of collegiate baseball, tops among SAC second basemen by five percentage points. He has helped Newberry turn 35 double plays on the season, good for 30th nationally, while committing just four errors.