Two Indians make All-American team

Southeast Missourian

Southeast Missouri State University baseball players Tim Alvarez and Justin Christian have been rewarded for their impressive senior seasons.

Alvarez, a left-handed pitcher, and Christian, a second baseman, were named to the third team of the TPX/Collegiate Baseball Newspaper All-American Team, the organization announced Friday.

Alvarez was 14-3 this year with a 2.74 earned-run average as he was named the Ohio Valley Conference Pitcher of the Year. He set a school record for wins and tied the OVC mark, then capped his season last week by throwing the first-ever no-hitter in the OVC Tournament.

Alvarez, a junior-college transfer, led the OVC in ERA during his two seasons with the Indians.

Christian, who played just one season for the Indians after transferring from Auburn, was the OVC Rookie of the Year after finishing in the top 10 in 10 statistical categories. He was second in stolen bases, third in triples, fourth in home runs, fifth in hits, runs, slugging, and total bases, seventh in RBIs and batting average, and 10th in on-base percentage.

Christian batted .376 with 13 homers, 12 doubles, three triples, 48 RBIs and 18 stolen bases.

Two other OVC players also are on the elite squad as Eastern Kentucky outfielder Josh Anderson was selected to the first team and Eastern Kentucky third baseman Neil Sellers made the third team.

Anderson led the OVC in hitting (.447) and the nation in stolen bases (57) while Sellers led the OVC in RBIs (85).

Track regionals

Hannah Stuckenschneider advanced to the finals in the 400-meters to highlight Southeast's performances during the opening day of the NCAA Mideast Regional track and field meet at Ohio State University.

Stuckenschneider had the sixth-fastest preliminary time of 54.48 seconds to move into today's finals. The top five finishers in each event qualify for the NCAA Championships.

In finals events Friday, Brandon Myer led the way by placing seventh in the discus (176-11). His distance was the third-best in school history. He already had the second-best performance.

Also, Courtney Haman was ninth in the javelin (142-1); Heather Jenkins was 11th in the shot put (49-1 1/2); Jay Heddell finished 24th in the discus (155-11); and Shelton Scott fouled on all three of his long jump attempts.

Laura VanHoevelaak failed to advance out of the preliminaries in the 400 hurdles, but her 12th-place time of 1:00.28 is the second-best in school history.

Others not making it out of the preliminaries were Brooke Woodruff in the 800 (17th, 2:12.23) and Lyndsey Stevenson in the 100 hurdles (24th, 14.14).

Several more Southeast athletes will compete today.