Seven Landmark Players Claim Baseball All-Region Honors

MADISON, N.J. - Following the first season of Landmark Conference baseball competition seven Landmark baseball student-athletes earned spots on the American Baseball Coaches Association/Rawlings All-Region Teams. The conference had a pair of first-team recipients, three second-team choices and two third-team selections.

Juniata College seniors Dan Kauffman and Jay Enoch, the Landmark Player and Pitcher of the Year respectively, were both named to the first-team for the Mid-Atlantic Region and will now be eligible for the ABCA/Rawlings All-America Team. Their teammate junior Adam Spadafora and The University of Scranton sophomore Chris Bligh were both second-team choices from the Mid-Atlantic Region, while Catholic University of America sophomore Michael Bzozowski was a second-team pick in the South Region. His teammate Joe Maca was named to the third team in the South Region and Juniata senior Steve Wilk was also tabbed for the third team in the Mid-Atlantic Region.

Kauffman, a first baseman, currently leads all of Division III in four categories: on base percentage (.645), slugging percentage (.979), total walks (55), and walks per game (1.57). His 14 home runs this season places him eighth among Division III leaders. He set new Juniata career records in home runs (43) and runs batted in (155), and was second in runs scored with 139. Kauffman earned All-Conference honors all four years of his Juniata career, including three first team selections.

Enoch, who earned Commonwealth Conference Rookie of the Year honors in 2005 and was the league's Pitcher of the Year in 2006, is currently ranked fourth in the nation with a Juniata-record 107 strikeouts. He averaged 11.64 strikeouts per nine innings pitched, good enough for 10th among Division III leaders. He also holds the Juniata career record for strikeouts with 270. Enoch is eighth in the nation in fewest hits allowed per nine innings with 5.55 allowed. He posted a 9-3 record during his senior campaign with a 2.50 earned run average, and finished his career with a school record 25 victories on the hill.

Spadafora, an outfielder for Juniata, set a new school record for hits in a season with a conference-leading 73, and he is ranked 18th in Division III in the category. He also led the Eagles in stolen bases with 10 out of 12 attempts. Spadafora finished second in the league in batting with a .465 average, and is ranked 18th among Division III leaders.

Bligh, Scranton's designated hitter, finished the year ranked in the top five in 12 Landmark Conference statistical categories: RBI (1st, 56), home runs (2nd, 10), total bases (2nd, 108), slugging percentage (2nd, .824), on-base percentage (2nd, .542), sacrifice flies (tied for 2nd, 4), runs scored (tied for 2nd, 49), doubles (3rd, 14), batting average (3rd, .443), hits (4th, 58), walks (4th, 28) and triples (tied for 5th, 3). His 58 hits and 56 RBI broke teammate Chris Psihoules’s (Washington Township, N.J./Westwood) 2007 marks of 51 and 39 respectively.

Bzozowski was a relief ace for Catholic and proved to be the Cards' most valuable closer this past season notching nine saves, ranking him in the top ten in the nation and winning a few games after staving off some tough situations. The sophomore had a 4-0 record in 21 appearances with 32 strikeouts. He had an ERA of 0.32. Bzozowski earned two Landmark Player of the Week awards and was also named to the All-Landmark first team.

Maca was the starting shortstop for Catholic and was a four-year all-conference honoree and team MVP finishing his career at CUA as one of the most decorated baseball players. He concluded this past season as CUA's top The shortstopstarting hitter batting .385 with 60 hits, 23 for extra bases and 38 RBI to rank him second on the squad. He was also stole 32 bases in 35 attempts and had a .958 fielding percentage.

Wilk, Juniata's starting third baseman, was third on the team in both average (.391) and runs batted in (39), and he was tied for second on the team in runs scored (43). His 52 total hits this season ranked second on the team and sixth in the Landmark Conference. Wilk was also sixth in the conference in batting average, and fifth in on base percentage (.500).

The Landmark baseball season was one of the most competitive in the conference in the first season as Catholic, Scranton and Juniata all finished with 26 victories. Catholic claimed the first Landmark Postseason Championship while Juniata topped the regular season standings.