2008 Woodie Awards
Lions have hay day in May days
Piedmont baseball enjoys first postseason
by Brian Carter
Issue date: 8/18/08 Section: Sports
2008 was a dream year for the Lions' baseball team, who advanced to the NCAA Division-III Baseball Championship for the first time in school history.
Piedmont sported a 34-14 overall record and remained in the top-25 rankings for the final 13 weeks of the season, ranking as high as tenth in the D3baseball.com national poll, and fifth in the ABCA Division-III coaches' poll.
Piedmont finished the remarkable year with the Great South Athletic Conference Championship and a berth into the postseason. The men were 11-3 in conference play and finished strongly at the friendly confines of Loudermilk Field with a home mark of 19-5.
After travelling to Danville, Va. for postseason play, Piedmont dropped a 9-1 game to Lynchburg College in the Division-III South Regional. Piedmont won its next game 10-6 over Salisbury University.
Facing elimination, the men couldn't overcome a high-powered Johns-Hopkins offense, which outscored Piedmont 13-6.
The team was rewarded nicely, garnering individual awards in both GSAC and nationally in division-III. Highlighting the year-end awards was recent graduate Tom Dimitroff being named to the second-team All-American in the American Baseball Coaches Association and the D3baseball.com award lists.
Dimitroff, also the 2008 GSAC Pitcher of the Year, was 7-2 with 14 saves and an ERA of 2.05. Dimitroff struck out 76 batters in 66 innings, and tied the NCAA Division-III record with 32 appearances.
The Lions graduated nine but have many players who have the experience and talent to repeat the 2008 success.
Piedmont sported a 34-14 overall record and remained in the top-25 rankings for the final 13 weeks of the season, ranking as high as tenth in the D3baseball.com national poll, and fifth in the ABCA Division-III coaches' poll.
Piedmont finished the remarkable year with the Great South Athletic Conference Championship and a berth into the postseason. The men were 11-3 in conference play and finished strongly at the friendly confines of Loudermilk Field with a home mark of 19-5.
After travelling to Danville, Va. for postseason play, Piedmont dropped a 9-1 game to Lynchburg College in the Division-III South Regional. Piedmont won its next game 10-6 over Salisbury University.
Facing elimination, the men couldn't overcome a high-powered Johns-Hopkins offense, which outscored Piedmont 13-6.
The team was rewarded nicely, garnering individual awards in both GSAC and nationally in division-III. Highlighting the year-end awards was recent graduate Tom Dimitroff being named to the second-team All-American in the American Baseball Coaches Association and the D3baseball.com award lists.
Dimitroff, also the 2008 GSAC Pitcher of the Year, was 7-2 with 14 saves and an ERA of 2.05. Dimitroff struck out 76 batters in 66 innings, and tied the NCAA Division-III record with 32 appearances.
The Lions graduated nine but have many players who have the experience and talent to repeat the 2008 success.
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