Guilford Quintet Earns All-ODAC Baseball Recongition

Greensboro, NC (5/17/06) -- Guilford College seniors Rob Bittner and Mike Chelenza earned First Team All-Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) recognition according to a vote of the league's head baseball coaches. Juniors Ricky Seabolt and Dave Whigham brought home second-team honors. Senior Jeff Arzonico was an honorable mention pick.

Bittner, the Quakers' first baseman, hit .372 with a school record-tying 13 homers in his fourth and final Guilford campaign. He also set school marks for runs batted in (54) and putouts (362) in a season. Bittner leads the league with his 13 home runs and stands fourth among the ODAC's best with his team-high .718 slugging percentage. His 54 RBIs rank second in the league and his 13 doubles stand seventh. Bittner won the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Division III Hitter of the Week Award for games of April 10-16 after hitting .500 with five homers and 17 RBIs in five games. He tied the school standard with three homers in a game with Eastern Mennonite April 15 and had four dingers among his seven hits and 11 RBIs in the twinbill with the Royals. He concluded his Guilford tenure with the school's career slugging percentage record (.649) and ranked second on the Quakers' all-time batting average (.377) and RBI (150) lists. His 32 homers stand third in Guilford history.

Chelenza was Guilford's third-leading hitter with a .360 batting average in 39 games. He ranks second in the ODAC only to Bittner with a career-high 11 home runs, the sixth-highest total in school history, and a .647 slugging percentage. His 27 RBI and 32 runs placed fourth on the team. The Quakers' starting third baseman enjoyed 16 games with at least two hits and eight multiple-RBI contests. He batted .390 with six homers, six doubles and 15 RBIs against league rivals. Chelenza assembled a 10-game hitting streak, Guilford's longest this year. He went 4-4 with a homer and double in Guilford's March 4 win over league-rival Lynchburg. His two-run homer capped a nine-run seventh inning and gave the Quakers a dramatic 10-8 comeback win over Averett Feb. 15. Chelenza mashed 14 homers in his three Guilford seasons, which rank 13th in school history.

Seabolt led the Quakers in batting average (.419), hits (70), doubles (15), runs (48) and stolen bases (8). His 133 fielding chances at shortstop broke the school record Jake Lubel set in 2004. Seabolt missed the Guilford mark for hits in a season by one and posted the fifth-best batting average in school history. His 15 doubles rate fourth all time and his 48 runs rank eighth. Guilford's leadoff hitter stands among the ODAC's best in batting average (3rd), hits (T1st), runs (2nd) and doubles (T3rd). Seabolt ranked second on the team with 34 RBIs and had four homers in 40 games. He showed the way with 21 multi-hit games and had 10 contests with at least two RBIs. Seabolt led Guilford with a .395 batting average, 34 hits and 23 runs in 21 games with ODAC foes. He had hits in all but six games his year, including four four-hit contests. Seabolt went 7-for-8 with four RBIs and six runs scored in the Quakers' doubleheader sweep of Eastern Mennonite April 15.