Baseball Release - All-South - Guilford College

• GUILFORD BASEBALL PLAYERS EARN REGIONAL HONORS

Greensboro, NC (05/20/03) -- Freshman Brian Slate (Thomasville, NC/Wesleyan Academy) earned a spot on the 2003 American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA)/Rawlings NCAA Division III First-Team All-South Region Baseball squad Tuesday. Junior A.J. McCauley (Pittsburgh, PA/Plum) and senior Andrew Duffy (Trumbull, CT/Trumbull) earned second-team and honorable mention recognition, respectively. Slate is a candidate for a spot on the ABCA All-America teams, which will be announced later this week. The announcement marked each player's first regional honor.

A first-team All-Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) pick and the league's Rookie of the Year, Slate led the conference with a .420 batting average that beat McCauley's .420 by a fraction. His batting average ranks third in Guilford history, tops among freshmen. His 44 runs batted in (RBI) stood third in the league and second to Brad Franklin's 49 RBI on the team. A second baseman, Slate also had 11 doubles and three home runs while logging a .956 fielding percentage. He ranked second to McCauley with 19 multi-hit games and second to Franklin with 11 multiple-RBI contests. Slate ended the year on a season-high eight-game hitting streak. One of his best games was a four-for-six performance against league-rival Eastern Mennonite March 9 in which he doubled and had five RBI.

A two-time second-team All-ODAC performer, McCauley earned his initial spot on the first-team squad this year after batting .420 with a school-record 71 hits. The Quakers' center-fielder and leadoff man, he topped the ODAC with 53 runs scored, two shy of Franklin's school record set in 2002. McCauley's team-high 20 stolen bases rank second in the ODAC and sixth on Guilford's all-time list. He has 65 career stolen bases, second in Guilford history. McCauley, one of two Division III players in the Cape Cod Baseball League this summer, ended the year on a career-best 20-game hitting streak and also had 11 doubles, three triples and 23 multi-hit games. The team captain had four four-hit games this season and plated a season-high four runners in a three-hit performance versus Villa Julie March 17.

Duffy, another first-team All-ODAC performer, ranked third on the team with a career-best .356 average. He belted five homers, also a personal high, and stood third in the conference with 44 runs scored. A third baseman, Duffy had 13 multi-hit games and eight contests with two or more RBI. He had 10 doubles, two triples, 30 RBI and 12 stolen bases in 15 attempts. Duffy pieced together a career-best 14-game hitting streak, second only to McCauley's streak this season. He was 3-4 with two homers, a double and a career-high six RBI in an April 15 win over Southern Virginia. Duffy, who received Guilford's Joyce Sportsmanship and Wynne Most Improved Athlete Awards this year, graduated ranked 10th in school history with 33 stolen bases.

The trio helped head coach Gene Baker's Quakers to a 27-14 overall record, 12-6 in the ODAC. Guilford matched its fifth-highest win total in school history and earned the number-three seed in the six-team ODAC Tournament. The Quakers lose seven seniors from the 2003 team, but return 25 players in 2004.