DeLand, Fla. - Stetson catcher Nick Rickles (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.) and rising junior pitcher Kurt Schluter (Jupiter, Fla.) have been named Honorable Mention All-Americans by CollegeBaseballInsider.com. The honors place Rickles in the top five among backstops and Schluter in the top 30 starting pitchers in the country according to CBI.
Rickles, a 14th round selection by the Oakland Athletics in the 2011 MLB First Year Player Draft, batted .347 with 12 home runs and 62 RBI for the Hatters this past season, earning First Team All-Atlantic Sun honors and leading Stetson to an outstanding 43-20 (23-7 A-Sun) record, an A-Sun regular season championship and the program's first NCAA regional final appearance since 2003.
Schluter, the 2011 A-Sun Pitcher of the Year, was in the midst of a dominating season (8-0, 1.40 ERA, 55 strikeouts in 57.2 innings) when his campaign was cut short by injury. He had a strikeout to walk ratio of greater than 3 to 1 (55-18) and did not allow a home run all year.
The Atlantic Sun Conference re-claimed its place in 2011 as one of the nation's toughest baseball conferences; CollegeBaseballInsider.com named five A-Sun players to its All-America Teams with 1B Adam Brett Walker (Jacksonville), 3B Jacob Tanis (Mercer) and UTIL Bo Reeder (ETSU) all receiving Second Team nods in addition to Rickles and Schluter. Stetson was the only A-Sun squad with multiple players so honored.
