Seattle University senior catcher Brian Olson (Black Diamond, Wash.) has been named First Team All-WAC for the second straight season, while Skyler Genger (Kent, Wash.) and Tarik Skubal (Kingman, Ariz.) received Second Team All-WAC honors, as the postseason awards were announced Tuesday evening at the Western Athletic Conference Baseball Tournament Reception at Hohokam Stadium.
Olson started 53 of the team’s 54 games in 2015, batting .275 with 14 doubles (tied for second in the WAC), three home runs, and 27 runs batted in, plus he led the team and the league with 36 walks. Behind the plate, he threw out almost 35 percent of would-be base stealers and helped guide the pitching staff to a 3.65 earned run average, the best since the program returned to competition in 2010 by almost a half a run.
In 27 conference games, Olson batted .321 with nine doubles, three home runs, and 17 runs batted in, plus he threw out 43.5 percent of would-be base stealers. He hit a walk-off home run in the 13th inning of the conference opener against Utah Valley March 20, and he finished the league schedule with 13 multiple-hit games.
Genger leads the Redhawks with a 2.92 earned run average coming into this week’s WAC Tournament, and he is eighth in the country with 113 strikeouts. In conference play, he is 3-3 with a 3.03 earned run average and 74 strikeouts in just 59 1/3 innings pitched, holding opposing batters to a .207 batting average.
Skubal is tied for the team lead with six victories so far this season, pitching two seven-inning complete games over the past two weeks, including a two-hit shutout at Northern Colorado May 16. In nine starts against WAC opponents, Skubal compiled a 6-1 record with a 2.47 earned run average, striking out 51 batters in 51 innings of work, including an 11-strikeout performance May 10 against Chicago State that tied Genger’s modern single-game school record.
Seattle University (29-25) is the top seed in the six-team, double-elimination WAC Baseball Tournament and will play its first game Thursday, May 21, at 7 p.m. against an opponent to be determined. There will be an audio stream on GoSeattleU.com as well as a video stream through the WAC Digital Network (www.wacsports.com/watch).