Ivan Acuna(WSSU) named the CIAA Baseball Player of the Year:Eight WSSU Rams on All-CIAA Team including Randy Norris(Dudley HS)

from John Dell at the Winston-Salem Journal/www.journalnow.com

Winston-Salem State, the regular-season CIAA baseball champion, dominated the All-CIAA baseball team that was announced Wednesday.

Ivan Acuna, a senior second baseman who hit .378 with 10 home runs, 49 RBIs and 10 stolen bases, was named the CIAA Player of the Year.

He’s the fifth conference player of the year from WSSU in the last seven seasons.

WSSU players who won the player of the year during the last seven years were Aaron Jones (2012), Ray Crawford (2014), Connor Andrus (2015) and Nate Steger (2016).

WSSU Rams on the 2017 All-CIAA Baseball Team:
Seth Reeves led the CIAA and the Rams with a 1.45 ERA, and tied for the league lead in wins with nine. Reeves was fourth in the CIAA in strikeouts, with 55. Reeves pitched 68.1 innings on the season and opponents hit just .191 when he was on the mound.

Landon Steiner for the second time has earned All-CIAA honors. Steiner hit .297 with 11 doubles and four home runs, while driving in 28. Steiner also scored 21 runs.

Emilio Abreu finished fourth on the team with a .335 batting average while scoring 33 runs. Abreu hit five home runs, had eight doubles and two triples, while driving in 34 run (fourth on team).

Randal Ortiz hit .288 for the 2017 season, with nine doubles and five home runs. Ortiz also had 35 runs batted in, while scoring 27 runs.

Randy Norris(Dudley High School) hit .383 for the Rams in 2017, which was good for third in the CIAA. Norris led the CIAA and finished third in the NCAA in stolen bases with 38. Norris also finished 2nd in triples, and third in doubles and home runs. This is Norris’ 2nd time making All-CIAA, and he was a second team member as a freshman.

Kanoa Hironaka finished the 2017 season with a 3.67 ERA and four complete games. Hironaka had nine wins on the season to tied for the CIAA lead, and his 60 strikeouts was third in the league, and top on the team. Hironaka pitched a team high 88.1 innings.

Brandon Ford hit .343 for the Rams, and ninth in the CIAA. Ford led the NCAA in triples with 10, and finished second on the team in rbi’s with 37. Ford hit six home runs on the season (2nd on team), while also stealing 11 bases on the season.

Willie McRae is an All-CIAA selection for the second time. McRae hit 3.03 with one triple, two doubles and seven runs batted in. McRae had 27 hits on the season, and his 13 stolen bases was second on the team.