June 1, 2009

Grand Rapids, Mich. - This past Friday the baseball and softball teams at Davenport University celebrated the end of their seasons with a banquet at 5/3rd Ballpark in Grand Rapids, MI for a Whitecaps game. Head coaches, Wes Cummings and Ronda Varnesdeel, took this time to reminiscence about the past season and also hand out respective awards to their players.

Coach Cummings presented the following player voted awards to his athletes:

Most Improved - Chris Sanchez

Pitcher of the Year - Tucker Gernhard

Offensive Player of the Year - Matt Collins

Defensive Player of the Year - James Folske

Co - MVP - Matt Collins and Tucker Gernhard

Gernhard and Collins were also both given 1st Team All-WHAC honors, with Jake Loomans received Honorable Mention. Folske was given the Gold Glove award for his work at first base, and Mitch Pike was honored as the teams Champion of Character.

Coach Varnesdeel also took this time to hand out awards to her players for their honors earned through-out the season.

Haley Stehouwer - 2nd Team All-American, NFCA All-Region, 1st Team All-WHAC, WHAC Player of the Week

Karlee Despres - 1st Team All-WHAC, WHAC Pitcher of the Week

Ali Dawson - Honorable Mention All-WHAC, WHAC Player of the Week

Kristin Miedema & Katie Cornman - Honorable Mention All-WHAC

Cora Miller - Champion of Character Award

The night was a great conclusion to both teams' successful first years with the baseball team finishing 32-23 and the softball team finishing 31-23. They are already looking forward to the bright future that next year will bring.