Wednesday, January 05, 2011

TUCSON, Ariz. - Collegiate Baseball's preseason poll saw four Atlantic Sun schools receive votes in their poll while three individuals garnered All-American honors.

The league's reigning regular-season and tournament champions, FGCU and Mercer, plus ETSU and Jacksonville received votes in the preseason poll. Individually, 2010 A-Sun Player of the Year Paul Hoilman, from ETSU, landed on the publication's First Team. Mercer's Jacob Tanis, the 2010 Tournament MVP, and Belmont's Nate Woods landed on the Third Team.

Hoilman, who led the Atlantic Sun IN hitting .421 in 2010, became only the second Buccaneer to be named a Louisville Slugger Preseason First Team All-American joining Caleb Moore who was selected in 2005. Hoilman was also featured in the College Baseball Daily top 100 as the 61st ranked player in Division I after breaking the ETSU single season records for home runs (25) and RBI (84) in 2010.

Tanise had a banner year in 2010, putting up numbers that haven’t been seen in decades at Mercer. Tanis batted .388 with 104 hits, 25 doubles, 22 home runs, 88 RBI and 197 total bases. Tanis set the school single-season record for total bases, hits and doubles, while his 22 home runs and 88 RBI both rank second in Mercer single-season history.

Woods, who set Belmont single-season program records for home runs (20) and runs batted in (78) in 2010 on his way to First Team All-Atlantic Sun Conference honors, was also selected as the All-South Region Second Team Designated Hitter. Woods posted a .319 batting average, slugged .667, and recorded 21 multi-hit games and 21 multi-RBI games. Among Woods' many season highlights a year ago was a walk-off grand slam to defeat Campbell on May 16.