Cincinnati, Ohio– The Bearcats baseball program continued to receive good news, after outfielder Griffin Merritt was named the AAC Player of the Year, the Bearcats also received news that four players were named to All-AAC 2nd Team, those four players were Infielder Ryan Nicholson, outfielder Paul Komistek, and pitchers Conner Linn, and Beau Keathley.
Paul Komistek was named the 2022 AAC Preseason Player of the Year heading into the 2022 season, but after a huge season where Komistek slashed .332% on the season, where he started all 52 games for the Bearcats, where he led the team with 56 base hits, and a .436% on base percentage as the senior outfielder was nearly impossible to keep off the base paths this season.
Bearcats first baseman Ryan Nicholson was a huge piece to the Bearcats success where he finished 2nd on the team behind Merritt, where he finished with 11 home runs on the season, good for 5th in the American Athletic Conference. Nicholson didn’t just play a huge part offensively and was a huge part on defnese as well where he recorded 366 putouts on the season, and having a near perfect .996 fielding percentage, think about that for a second, thats a pretty incredible statistic for the sophomore first basemen.
Beau Keathley had a huge season where he led the Bearcats with 76 innings pitches, along with 83 strikeouts on the season. Keathley saw his best outing of the season come back on March 19th where he pitched 6 innings, recording 12 strikeouts, and allowing no runs, which led to him being named the AAC Pitcher of the Week shortly after. The senior pitcher was a focal point for the Bearcats rotation all season and took charge in every start over the course of the season.
Sophomore pitcher Conner Linn joined Keathley on the 2nd team AAC, where he finished with a 4.07 ERA during his first year as a starter, leading the Bearcats in that aspect, and recorded 5 quality starts throughout the season where he pitched nearly 49 innings, striking out 38 batters in that frame. Linn recorded a career high 7 innings pitched, back on April 30th vs ECU where he only gave up 1 earned run, recording five strikeouts in that start. Linn will be a huge focal point in the Bearcats rotation for years to come as the Indiana native took advantage of the opportunity this season and shined while doing it.
Congratulations to the Bearcats baseball team as head coach Scott Googins saw five players named to the AAC Conference teams and welcomed in a Player of the Year in the process. The Bearcats will be back in action tomorrow morning bright and early where they kick off the AAC Tournament when they take on 5th seed Tulane at 9 am down in Clearwater.
