KEUKA PARK, N.Y. — The Keuka College Baseball team tied the program record with four players being named All-Empire 8 Conference on Tuesday.
Kyle Wood led the way for the Wolves with a First Team selection at third base. He joins
RJ Murphy '24 as the only players to earn First Team All-Empire 8 in program history.
Carlos Fantauzzi earned his second straight All-Empire 8 Second Team honor in the outfield.
Alex Evans and
John Valinoti rounded out the selections for the Wolves, being named to the Third Team.
Wood set a new career-high with a .367 batting average this season while starting all 36 games for the Wolves. He had four home runs on the season to lead the Green and Gold and rank tenth in the Empire 8. He ranked in the top ten in program history with a .474 on-base percentage and a .583 slugging percentage this season. Wood scored 38 runs on the year, second-most in program history. For his two-year career at Keuka College,
Kyle Wood has the third-best slugging percentage in program history at .550.
Carlos Fantauzzi was named a Second Team All-Empire 8 outfielder in each of his two seasons at Keuka College. Over that time, Fantauzzi has posted a .367 career batting average with 90 hits, 71 runs batted in, and 61 runs scored. This season, he topped his performance as a junior as he hit .383 with 51 hits, tying for the second-most hits in a season in program history. He tied for fifth with 35 runs scored this season and stood alone in fourth with 37 RBIs this season. Concluding his two-year career, Fantauzzi will rank in the top ten for career batting average and slugging percentage. He will also finish in a tie for first with 10 career triples and a tie for fourth with 71 career RBIs, all in just two seasons.
Sophomore
Alex Evans made a big step in his second season on campus for the Wolves. Evans upped his batting average by over 100 points, hitting .377 on the season. He logged 43 hits for the Wolves from the top of the order with six doubles. Evans joined the offensive production with Wood and Fantauzzi as the sophomore ranked second on the team with 36 runs scored. Solid in the middle of the infield for the Wolves, Evans led Keuka College with 93 assists to take sixth on the single-season list.
Rounding out the selections from the Wolves was
John Valinoti. He was selected to the Third Team as a designated hitter. It was the first and only season at Keuka College for Valinoti after transferring from Wells College, but he made the most of the opportunity. Valinoti hit .330 on the season for the Green and Gold with 29 hits, three doubles, and a home run. The senior drove in 21 runs for Keuka College and scored 10 himself. He is the first designated hitter to earn All-Conference honors from the Empire 8 in program history.
Also honored on Tuesday was first baseman
Derek Novicki as he was named as Keuka College's representative for the Empire 8 Baseball Sportsman of the Year team. He had his best season in a Keuka College uniform, hitting .328 in the middle of the lineup. Novicki entered the season with 33 hits over his first two seasons on campus and eclipsed that with 41 this season. His 30 RBIs sit in the top ten in a season in program history.
Novicki was one of nine from the conference honored. From the conference's release, "The Empire 8 Conference emphasizes that 'Competing with Honor and Integrity' is an essential component of a student-athlete's experience in conjunction with an institution's educational mission. These honorees have distinguished themselves and consistently exhibit the critical traits as outstanding sportsmen."
