Zach Clarke, Justin Hull Named First-Team All SCIAC for CMS Baseball

CLAREMONT, Calif. -- Juniors Zach Clarke and Justin Hull earned selections on the 2019 All-SCIAC Baseball First Team in a vote of the conference's head coaches, the league office announced today.

It marked the first honor of its kind for Clarke, who appeared in 33 games for the Stags this season. He posted season highs in home runs (5), doubles (11), hits (55), stolen bases (3), walks (9), and RBI (23). Clarke led the SCIAC with a .414 batting average and finished with a .469 on-base percentage as well as a .609 slugging percentage (all marked the team lead). The shortstop finished the season riding a 12-game hitting streak, including a season-high four hits at La Verne on May 4. He drove in a season-high three runs four times (last; May 29 vs. Whittier) along with a team-leading 20 multi-hit games. 

The junior held a .930 fielding percentage over 187 total chances and helped turn 21 double plays with 123 assists. Clarke hit two home runs in a single game for the first time in his career with CMS on Feb. 23 against Cal Lutheran, it marked the only time this season that a Stag baseball player hit two home runs in a game. 

Hull receives a first-team honor for the first time in his career after being selected second-team a season ago. He finished tied for second in the conference with eight wins, which was also a career-high. The junior right-handed starting pitcher held opponents to two runs or less over eight of his 12 starts earning a decision in nine of those starts. He struck out a career-high 67 batters over 84.1 innings pitched posting a career-high 7.17 K/9.0 ratio alongside a career-low 2.46 ERA (23 earned runs). The righty held opponents to a .215 batting average against, marking the lowest for a starter on the team (min. 7 starts).  

Hull tossed three consecutive complete games, matching his total complete game mark from his sophomore season and pushing his career number to six. It marked the second straight year that Hull was the only pitcher on the team to record a complete game. During the course of the unprecedented run, he allowed no more than three earned runs and held Chapman (30-9), who finished in first place in the conference and ranked in the top-10 nationally, to one earned run on just three hits with five strikeouts over 9.0 innings on the road on Apr. 12. He capped the complete-game run with a season-high nine strikeouts at Caltech over 9.0 innings in an 8-3 win. 

CMS finished the 2019 campaign at 19-14-1 overall and 12-12 in SCIAC, just missing out on the conference tournament in the season's final weekend. Clarke and Hull will be two of the leaders expected to help get the Stags into the postseason next year when the team returns four of its top six hitters and most of its pitching staff that led the CMS baseball team to the cusp of the conference tournament finishing in fifth place. The CMS baseball team won its most games since 2011, a season that saw the Stags earn 23 wins, and have continued to improve in the win column each of the last five years edging its 2018 win total. 

For more details on the baseball All-Conference honorees click here.