NETZEL, VAUGHAN AND WITCZAK EARN CCAC HONORS
For
Immediate Release
May 7, 2007
Senior shortstop Brad Netzel (Kankakee H.S./Kankakee, IL), senior pitcher Justin Vaughan (Lockport H.S./Mokena, IL) and freshman second baseman Steve Witczak (St. Rita H.S./Chicago, IL) have been recognized as all-conference performers
in a vote of coaches in the Chicagoland Collegiate
Athletic Conference.
Netzel was USF's lone first-team all-CCAC selection. He led the Saints in hitting with a .412 average and started all 52 USF games at shortstop. He also topped the Saints with 18 doubles, 80 total hits, 52 runs scored, 103 total bases, 15 sacrifice bunts and a .531 slugging percentage. His 34 RBI ranked second on the club. Defensively, he excelled and was charged with only 6 errors in 285 total chances for a percentage of .979.
Vaughan earned CCAC honorable mention recognition. He finished the season with a 6-4 record and a 3.81 earned run average. He completed the season with his finest stretch, winning four straight complete-game efforts -- including a pair of shoututs -- prior to losing his final collegiate start to Mount Mercy (IA) in the NAIA Region VII Championship tournament in La Crosse, Wis., on May 8. In that loss, Vaughan worked 11-plus innings and allowed only 4 earned runs.
Witczak joined Netzel as recipients of the CCAC Gold Glove award. Each conference in the NAIA gives out one Gold Glove per position. Witczak, who formed one of the top double-play combinations in the CCAC with Netzel, committed only 7 errors in 164 chances for a fielding mark of .957.
The
Saints completed their season with a 32-20 mark
and finished in a four-way tie for second in the CCAC regular-season standings with a 13-7 league mark. USF then won a tie-breaking playoff to earn the No. 2 seed in the Region VII tourney where it lost games to tourney runnerup Mount Mercy and eventual Region VII champion St. Ambrose (IA).
