For the third time this post-season, four members of the Francis Marion University baseball team have garnered All-Region recognition, this time from the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) and Rawlings.

Graduate student first baseman Darius Nobles and senior third baseman Todd Mattox received first-team All-Southeast honors, while senior outfielder Will Hardee and graduate student second baseman Tanner Wakefield were both selected to the second team.

FMU was one of only three schools to place four players on the post-season squad.

ABCA/Rawlings All-Region First-Team selections are nominated for ABCA/Rawlings All-America honors. The ABCA/Rawlings NCAA Div. II All-Americans will be announced on Friday, June 3.  The ABCA All-America team was first recognized in 1949 and now includes nine divisions: NCAA Divisions I, II and III, NAIA, NJCAA Divisions I, II and III, Pacific Association Division, and High School.

Nobles, who hails from Greenville, N.C., batted .402 with 51 runs scored, 12 doubles, two triples, 14 home runs, and 53 runs batted in. The round-trippers were the second-highest season total in FMU history.  He led FMU in both slugging percentage (.736) and on-base percentage (.518).  The former figure represents a new school record, while the latter ranks second in team history.  He ended the season having safely reached base in each of the final 27 games, and led FMU with 17 multi-RBI contests.

Mattox, a native of Winnsboro, S.C., hit .393 with 54 runs, 14 doubles, five triples (leads Conference Carolinas), two homers, 46 RBIs, and a .464 on-base percentage.  He safely reached base in 46 of the 48 games, including a 79-game streak that when snapped was only nine shy of the all-time Division II record.  He ends his career with the fourth-best average (.392) in program history.

Hardee, a local product from Evergreen and a graduate of South Florence High School, led FMU with a .405 average, along with 83 hits, 60 runs, 22 doubles (leads Conference Carolinas and ranks 11th nationally), two triples, two home runs, 39 RBIs, and a .492 on-base percentage.  He concluded the season with a 26-game hitting streak, third-longest in team history, and was 6-of-6 in stolen bases.  His hit total currently ranks 21st in NCAA Division II, while his season doubles total was the second-highest in team history.

Nobles and Hardee become only the 11th and 12th Patriots in program history to hit .400 in a season.                                                                                                                                         
Wakefield, a native of Gainesville, Ga., hit .398 with 47 runs, 17 doubles, two triples, one homer, 38 RBIs, and a .459 on-base percentage.  He also led the team in stolen bases (9-of-11). Earlier in the year, he recorded a 20-game hitting streak, equaling the then fifth-longest streak in program history.

All four players rank among the top-7 for hitting in Conference Carolinas.  Mattox, Hardee, and Wakefield all registered 25 multi-hit games during the season.

The four helped direct Francis Marion to a 29-19 record this past season – an 11-win improvement over the previous season – in the team's first year as a member of Conference Carolinas.

They also were part of the most prolific hitting team in program history.  The team's batting average of .353 leads the conference and ranks fifth nationally, and is 12 points higher than the school's single season record of .341 set in 1985. 

Nobles is a graduate of J.H. Rose High School, while Mattox is a product of Blythewood High School, and Wakefield is a product of King's Ridge Christian School.
Previously, Hardee, Mattox, and Nobles garnered All-Region accolades from both the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) and the Division II Conference Commissioners Association (D2CCA).

     
               Nobles                            Mattox                           Hardee                              Wakefield