Jason Simone and Steve Nickel Earn Top Regional Baseball Honors
SUNY Cortland junior outfielder Jason Simone (Utica/Thomas R. Proctor) has been named the 2010 Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Division III Upstate New York Baseball Player of the Year, while senior third baseman Steve Nickel (Lake Ronkonkoma/Sachem North) has been chosen as the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) Division III New York Region Player of the Year.
In addition, both Nickel and senior outfielder Khyle Dimino (Brighton) joined Simone on the All-ECAC Upstate New York team. Only players named first-team all-conference, along with players from schools without conference affiliations, are eligible for All-ECAC awards.
Simone was a second-team American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) All-American and a repeat selection as the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) Player of the Year this spring. He finished the season with a .437 batting average, 12 doubles, five triples, two homers and 56 runs batted in. He also scored 41 runs and stole 23 bases in 27 attempts. Simone will bring a 24-game hitting streak into next season, two shy of tying the school record. He hit safely in 44 of his 50 games played.
Nickel, a second team ABCA All-American, led the Red Dragons with a .446 batting average and 12 home runs. His season totals also included 11 doubles, five triples, 65 RBI, 61 runs scored and 22 walks. He registered a .502 on-base percentage and a .741 slugging percentage, set a school single-season record with 143 total bases and finished third at Cortland with 142 career RBI.
Simone and Nickel each finished the season with a school single-season record 86 base hits.
Dimino hit .383 with seven doubles, three triples, five homers, 38 RBI and 41 runs scored. He stole a school single-season record 37 bases in 42 attempts, and finished tied for third place at Cortland with 65 stolen bases despite playing just two seasons. Dimino became the third player in NCAA Div. III World Series history to hit for the cycle during Cortland’s 23-8 win over nationally top-ranked Johns Hopkins.
Cortland finished the season 40-10-1 and placed second nationally at the NCAA Div. III World Series. The Red Dragons were national runner-up for the second time in school history and earned their fifth top-four national finish. The program reached the 40-win plateau for the fourth time in six years and has won at least 30 games 16 times over the last 17 seasons.
