Baseball

Crouthers named Freshman of the Year

        (EDWARDSVILLE, Ill.) Dave Crouthers, tabbed as the Great Lakes Valley Conference’s baseball Freshman of the Year, was among four players named to the league’s first team.

        Crouthers, of Edwardsville, joined fellow Edwardsville native third baseman Mark Bugger, Collinsville’s Travis Dawson and Stewardson’s Ryan Cox on the first team. Aaron Rakers, of Trenton, was named second team All-GLVC.

        SIUE completed the 1999 season with a 35-19 record and narrowly missed a bid to the NCAA Tournament. Despite being unable to defend its two straight GLVC baseball titles, the Cougars became the only team to have qualified for the conference tournament in each of the past four seasons.

        Crouthers completed his season with a .355 batting average and a league-leading 28 runs batted in during conference-only play. He started 53 games for the Cougars and had 72 hits, including 14 doubles and five triples. Crouthers led SIUE with 52 runs batted in overall.

        Bugger, a sophomore, completed his second season as a Cougar with a .360 batting average. He tied for the team lead in doubles with 14.

        Dawson, a junior, led all SIUE starters with a .392 batting average, placing him among the top five hitters in the GLVC. Dawson tied Crouthers and Bugger for the team lead in doubles with 14 as well as tied Crouthers for the triples lead with five. He also swiped a team-leading 29 bases.

        Cox, a senior, powered his fast ball to the lowest earned run average for a starter at SIUE since Nick Baltz fired a 1.25 ERA during the 1975 season. Cox was second in strikeouts with 98, averaging more than 10 fanned batters per nine innings. He completed the season with an 8-3 record.

        Rakers, a senior, broke the single-season record for strikeouts with 109. His 1.95 earned run average placed him among the top five pitchers in the GLVC. Rakers’ record was 8-5.

        The GLVC tapped Quincy for its player and coach of the year. Josh Rabe, an outfielder, earned the player honors while Pat Atwell was named the league’s top coach.

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