Baseball | May 21

CLEVELAND – The Northern Illinois University baseball team had three student-athletes earn All-MAC honors Tuesday as the Mid-American Conference announced its 2024 postseason honors.
 
Colin Summerhill (Chicago, Ill./Troy), Eric Erato (Sussex, Wis./Sussex Hamilton) and Adam Brouwer (Tinley Park, Ill./Illinois-Springfield) were named to the All-MAC Second Team. Erato was also named to the All-Defensive Team at second base. This is the first time NIU has had three All-MAC Selections since 2016.
 
"I am very proud of Eric, Colin and Adam for earning All-MAC honors," said head coach Ryan Copeland. "They performed at a high level throughout the season and the head coaches in our league recognized it."
 
Summerhill earned his first career postseason honor after setting the NIU single-season home run record with 19, breaking the previous record of 15 set in 2003. The senior catcher led the MAC with 65 runs batted in and was fourth in home runs. His 65 RBI are the second-most in a single season in NIU history. Summerhill opened the season with seven homers in his first 13 games. He had four multi-home run games, including on April 9 when Summerhill drove in a career-high six runs with a grand slam and a two-run home run. That game started a streak of five consecutive games with a home run which was punctuated by his record-setting 16^th home run of the year on April 19 against Kent State.
 
Erato set career-highs this season with a .330 batting average, .448 on-base percentage and 52 runs scored. He was tied for fourth in the MAC with 39 walks. Erato reached base in 17 straight games from March 8 to April 6 and finished the season reaching base in 21 consecutive games. He drove in a season-high four runs in NIU's 17-8 win at Northwestern on March 26. On May 11^th Erato hit a key three-run home run in the Huskies' 4-3 win at Western Michigan. In the field, Erato made just one error while splitting time between the outfield and second base.
 
Brouwer led the NIU pitching staff with seven wins this season and was second on the team with 55 strikeouts and 73.1 innings pitched. The redshirt-sophomore was one of only two pitchers in the MAC to win seven conference games this season with the other being Merritt Beeker of Ball State who was named the Pitcher of the Year. Brouwer allowed three earned runs or less in eight of his 10 conference starts. He struck out a season-high seven batters on March 17 at Akron, allowing one run on two hits over six innings. On March 24 Brouwer threw seven shutout innings at Miami, striking out five batters while allowing just four hits and two walks as NIU went on to win 1-0.
 
The Huskies finished the season with a record of 21-33, an 11-win improvement from 2023 with a nine-win improvement in conference play alone at 14-16.
 
--NIU--
 
2024 MAC Baseball Postseason Awards & All-MAC Teams
Coach of the Year: Kyle Hallock, Bowling Green
Player of the Year: Nathan Archer, Bowling Green
Pitcher of the Year: Merritt Beeker, Ball State
Freshman Player of the Year: Garrett Wright, Bowling Green
Freshman Pitcher of the Year: Keegan Johnson, Ball State
Defensive Player of the Year: Michael Hallquist, Ball State
All-MAC First Team
C – Garrett Wright, Bowling Green
1B – Cade Sullivan, Western Michigan
2B – Sam Seidel, Bowling Green
SS – Michael Hallquist, Ball State
3B – Ryland Zaborowski, Miami
OF – Nathan Archer, Bowling Green
OF – Zach MacDonald, Miami
OF - Garret Pike, Toledo
OF - Josh Johnson, Kent State
DH – CJ Richmond, Western Michigan
SP – Jared Schaeffer, Akron
SP – Merritt Beeker, Ball State
SP – Keegan Johnson, Ball State
SP – Calvin Bickerstaff, Kent State
SP – Grant Umberger, Toledo
RP – Carson Byers, Miami
 
All-MAC Second Team
C – Hunter Dobbins, Ball State
C – Collin Summerhill, Northern Illinois
1B – Blake Bevis, Ball State
2B – Eric Erato, Northern Illinois
SS – Tyler Ross, Bowling Green
3B – Leighton Banjoff, Bowling Green
OF – Jack Krause, Bowling Green
OF – Jacob Donahue, Central Michigan
OF – Gideon Antle, Ohio
OF – Dylan Nevar, Western Michigan
DH – DJ Newman, Bowling Green
SP – Nic Good, Bowling Green
SP – Bobby Jones, Eastern Michigan
SP – Adam Brouwer, Northern Illinois
SP – Nolan Vlcek, Western Michigan
RP – Jacob Tabor, Toledo
 
All-Defensive Team
C – Garrett Wright, Bowling Green
1B – Cade Sullivan, Western Michigan
2B – Eric Erato, Northern Illinois
SS – Michael Hallquist, Ball State // JR Nelson, Ohio
3B – Ely Stuart, Central Michigan
OF – Nathan Archer, Bowling Green
OF – Zach MacDonald, Miami
OF – Garret Pike, Toledo
P – Nic Good, Bowling Green