TULSA, Okla. – The Omaha baseball team saw nine members of the program earn All-Summit honors Tuesday night.
Payton Kinney,
Parker Smejkal and
Breyden Eckhout earned All-Summit First Team honors, while
Keil Krumwiede,
Brett Bonar,
Thomas DeBonville,
Grant Suponchick and
Cal Hehnke were named to the All-Summit Second Team.
Kinney also garnered Pitcher of the Year honors, while head coach
Evan Porter earned his first Summit League Coach of the Year award.
Kinney picks up his first career All-Summit and superlative honor as a sixth-year senior. The Firth, Neb., native posted a league-best 1.88 ERA and a 9-1 record through 14 starts. He also had a scoreless streak that spanned 28 innings from March 2-23 of this season and registered a career high of 11 strikeouts in a game twice.
In just his third season at the helm of the program, Porter has led his team to its first regular-season league title since 2014 and the program's first No. 1 overall seed in the league tournament after the Mavericks were selected fifth in the preseason poll. His team vaulted a massive turnaround with 28 wins this year, which are more than the previous two years combined. Porter's squad also finished the regular season with the country's highest fielding percentage at .983.
Eckhout earned Summit League Player of the Week honors on April 1 after narrowly missing the cycle in the final home game of the series against Western Illinois with a single, a double and a triple with two RBI. As a first-year transfer from Iowa Western Community College, Eckhout started all 50 games of the regular season at third base with a .925 fielding percentage. At the plate, he batted .262 with 44 hits, 27 runs scored, 12 RBI and two home runs.
Smejkal saw his name on the All-Summit list for the first time in his career. The junior finished the season with a .336 batting average and a .478 on-base percentage that ranked second in the league. His .564 slugging percentage was the third-highest among league players. This season, he tallied 47 hits, 26 runs and a team-leading 37 RBI with six homers, including a grand slam.
Krumwiede earned his first career All-Summit honor. The junior shortstop from Glasgow, Mont., ranked fourth on the team with a .280 batting average and tallied a team-best 37 runs scored, 18 hits, 34 RBI and two homers. He also finished the regular-season campaign with a .961 fielding percentage.
DeBonville, the Mavericks' only All-Summit honoree last year, found himself on the second team for back-to-back seasons. The senior from Silverthorne, Colo., posted a team-best 57 hits and tied for second on the team with 34 RBI. He batted the third-highest average on the team at .282 with a .460 slugging percentage and a .324 on-base percentage along with 32 runs scored. He also tallied 10 stolen bases on the season.
A utility player, Suponchick joins DeBonville as a two-time All-Summit honoree. After he tallied first-team All-Summit as a sophomore in 2017, Suponchick saw action on the mound, as a designated hitter and at first base. This season, Suponchick has appeared in 19 games with 15 starts, and his .305 batting average is the second-highest on the Maverick squad. He recorded nine runs and 14 RBI and notched two homers. Suponchick finished the 2019 regular season with .475 slugging percentage and a .348 on-base percentage.
Lastly, Hehnke notched a spot as a second-team All-Summit recipient as a reliever on the mound. His six saves this season are the tied for the second-most in the league and are the most by any player in a single season in the Mavericks' Division I era. As Omaha's active career leader in mound appearances, innings pitched and strikeouts, Hehnke turned in a 4.06 ERA with 57 strikeouts to just 20 walks through 44.1 innings of work.
Omaha begins its postseason play with a Wednesday, May 22 matchup at Noon against the No. 4 seed Western Illinois. For more information, visit OMavs.com.
