Four baseball players nab All-Conference Honors
Published 10:30 am Wednesday, June 1, 2022
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The Longwood Lancers baseball team wrapped up their season last weekend and had four players earn Big South honors in the process. Hunter Gilliam led the way for the Lancers and was recognized as a First-Team All-Conference member as a first baseman. Eliot Dix followed picked up second team honors as an infielder and Michael Peterson was an honorable mention as an outfielder. Right-hander Andrew Potojecki claimed a spot on the All-Academic team in the conference for his performance not only on the field, but in the classroom as well.
Hunter Gilliam, a Farmville native, started and played in 51 games this season. He finished ranked in the top 10 in the Big South in slugging at .579 (8th), OPS .974 (9th), RBI with 43 (9th), home-runs at 13 (6th), total bases with 103 (8th), walks with 30 (8th), and sacrifice flies with five (5th). Gilliam had 13 multi-hit games on the season which included a two homer day against Elon in February. The first baseman’s 13 home-runs more than tripled his previous best of four he set his Freshman year and he had career bests in RBI, walks, slugging percentage and on base percentage. Not to be overshadowed, Gilliam had a perfect year defensively at first where he turned in a 1.000 fielding percentage in 427 chances which included the most putouts in the conference with 404.
Eliot Dix followed up with a second-team honor after having a stellar season at the plate and the hot corner. Dix played in 38 games had had 13 multi-hit games, eight of which came in conference play. The Maplewood, New Jersey native had the sixth best batting average in the conference with a .341 that increased to a .382 average in conference play which was good for fifth best in the Big South. Dix also had the sixth best on base percentage in conference play with a .493. He recorded three home-runs, 30 RBI and had a five hit game against Maryland Eastern Shore earlier in the season. Dix fielded .947 on the season at third-base.
Michael Peterson had a breakout type season in the outfield that landed him an honorable mention from the conference. Peterson started and played in 48 games and was second in the conference in stolen bases with 24. The Prince George native was 17th in the Big South in batting average at .319 and started the season with a 14 game reached base streak. He also had three separate reach base streaks reach at least 10 games and finished with an on base percentage of .408. Peterson recorded two home-runs, one of which was an inside the park home-run and tied a career best fielding percentage at .980.
Andrew Potojecki had a solid year on the field and in the classroom and picked up a spot on the All-Academic team. Potojecki started 13 games as the Friday starter for Longwood and won six games. He had a career high in innings pitched and strikeouts and pitched at least five innings in nine of his appearances, five of which were quality starts. The Danville native had a five game win streak stretch from March 11th to April 8th. Off the field Potojecki had a 3.7 GPA in Business Administration with concentrations in Management and Marketing and previously won the Dr. Ray Gaskin’s Award for Academic Excellence at Longwood.