SPRINGFIELD, ILL. – The Apprentice School baseball team came away with 12 honors on Sunday afternoon at the United States Collegiate Athletic Association All-American Banquet.
Four players were named to the All-American teams, while eight more earned All-Academic honors at the pre-tournament banquet. Since 2000, the Builders have had 35 All-Academic selections and 44 All-American honors from the USCAA.
Earning his second USCAA First Team All-American honor was senior outfielder Chris Aldridge. The Toano, Va. native has amassed the sixth most hits in a single season in the last 24 years with his 63. He has had 20 multi-hit games and six multi-RBI games. He's had four hits in a game twice this year and drove in five runs going 4-for-5 against NCAA Division III Tournament participant Castleton State College. Aldridge leads the team with a .417 batting average.
Two Builders were named to the second team in senior Chris Perry and freshman Brian Belvin. Perry, a Chesapeake, Va. native has been stellar on the mound this year going 6-2 with a 2.40 ERA. He struck out six in six innings against USCAA Tournament participant Rochester College earlier this year in Florida. Against in-town rival Christopher Newport University he went eight innings and allowed nine hits in a 15-3 Apprentice School win. He struck out seven against Thomas Nelson and Lock Haven in his first two starts of the year.
Belvin, a native of Gloucester, Va., has handled first base most of the year and enters the tournament with a .336 batting average. He has 11 multi-hit games which all were two-hit games, and had 12 multi-RBI games topped by four against Southern Maine Community College. Belvin had a 14-game hitting streak earlier in the season which is second longest on the team this year and reached base in 24 straight games which is the longest streak of the year.
Earning honorable mention All-American honors this year was junior relief pitcher Sam Massie. A native of Hampton, Va., Massie earned his third straight All-American honor after two years on first team. He broke the single-season saves record with seven and took over the career saves mark with 19. Massie went 23 innings before issuing his first walk of the season against Christopher Newport. He struck out seven in 3.1 innings against Alfred State and has 31 strikeouts in the season thus far.
The eight players who were named to the All-Academic team included: Massie, Perry, Tim Moore, Ryan Hendrickson, Jordan Cowles, Zach Harding, Hayden Champigny and Lee Rossi.
The 2014 USCAA Small College World Series kicks off on Monday morning at 8:30 am CST. The Builders take the field at 1:30 pm CST when they face fifth-seeded Briarcliffe College at Robin Roberts Stadium.