DC Baseball Has Seven Receive HCAC Postseason Accolades

GREENWOOD, IND.  --  The Defiance College baseball team had seven players named to the All-Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference Teams for their efforts this past season.  [2016 All-HCAC Teams]

Senior Gary Levengood (Beverly Hills, Fla./Lecanto) was a first-team pick, senior Ryan Kohlhofer (Walbridge/Lake) and juniors Quinten Harrington (Sandusky/Perkins) and Nick Peters (Macomb, Mich./Eisenhower) were named to the second-team.  Freshman Michael Gilliland (Napoleon) and junior Zack Reed (Midland, Mich./Bullock Creek) were tabbed as honorable mention selections.  In addition, sophomore Alek Menyhart (Hartland, Mich./Hartland) was named to the All-Sportsmanship Team.

Levengood started all 39 games he played in this past season and was second on the team in batting average at .349 (53-of-152).  He was second on the team in hits with 53 and tied for second in both RBI (28) and walks (16).  Levengood was also amongst the team leaders in runs scored with 27.  He recorded 18 multi-hit games, including seven games of three hits or more with a season-best four hits in a game against Franklin (Ind.) College (four-of-five overall).  Defensively, he recorded 203 putouts, 23 assists and just one error for an impressive .996 fielding percentage as the team's starting catcher.

For his career, Levengood played in 136 games and started all but three.  He had a .299 lifetime batting average (144-of-481) with one home run, 20 doubles, 81 runs scored and 71 RBI.  Levengood ends his career at DC fifth all-time in at-bats (481), tied for eighth in hits (144), seventh in walks (57) and tied for third in putouts (659).

Kohlhofer caps his playing career with his fourth All-HCAC honor.  He was a three-time honorable mention All-Conference award winner coming into this season.  This spring, Kohlhofer started all 40 games and led the team in batting average (.358), hits (64), at-bats (179), doubles (10), home runs (three) and runs scored (41).  His 64 hits and 179 at-bats were also tops in the HCAC.  He had 21 multi-hit games with a season-high four hits in two games.  Kohlhofer was also tied for fourth in RBI with 25.  He set single-season records in at-bats (179), hits (64) and defensive assists (125).

In 148 career games, Kohlhofer started all but two.  He ends his career with a .312 lifetime batting average (183-of-587) and became the program's all-time leader in at-bats (587), hits (183), runs (115) and defensive assists (421).  Kohlhofer also hit four career home runs, six triples, 31 doubles and scored 76 RBI.  He also had 28 stolen bases in 38 attempts.  Defensively, Kohlhofer had a .910 fielding percentage with 256 putouts and 421 assists.

Harrington started all 32 games he played in this past season and was third in batting average at .342 (40-of-117).  He led the team in RBI with 29 and was also amongst the team leaders in runs scored with 26.  He also had one triple, eight doubles and led thet eam in walks with 17.  Harrington recorded 11 multi-hit games with a season-high three hits on three occasions.

Peters made 12 total appearances on the mound for the Yellow Jackets in 2016 with 10 starts and a team-high four complete games.  He finished in a tie for second in wins with four and was 4-3 overall with a 4.54 earned run average.  He also led the team in innings pitched at 69-and-a-third and was second in strikeouts with 35.  Peters posted a season and career-high eight strikeouts in a 5-4 win against Mount St. Joseph University on Apr. 30.

Gilliland had an impressive freshman season capped by his first All-Conference recognition.  He started all 38 games he played in at second base and batted .324 at the plate (47-of-145) with three triples, six doubles, 30 runs scored and 28 RBI.  His 47 hits were the fourth most on the team and his 28 RBi were tied for second most.  Gilliland recorded seven multi-hit games, including a season-best four hits on two occasions.  

Reed started all 40 games as a junior and was fourth in batting average at .336 (45-of-134).  His 45 hits were fifth most on the team and his 134 at-bats were fifth highest.  Reed posted 12 multi-hit games with a season-best four-of-four effort early in the season against Eastern Nazarene in which he also scored a pair of runs and had four RBI.  He led the team in triples (five) and stolen bases (11).  His five triples tied the program's single-season record.  In addition, Reed hit one home run, eight doubles, scored 28 runs and was tied for fourth in RBI at 25.

Menyhart was named to the All-Sportsmanship Team after spending the entire season as a member of the junior varsity team.