Baseball’s Kaffenbarger, Nies earn All-HCAC recognition
CARMEL, Indiana – The Defiance College baseball program has two players who earned All-Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference recognition this season, with both being named honorable mention. The HCAC office announced its 2021 baseball all-conference teams and major award winners on Monday morning after a vote of the league’s head coaches.
CARMEL, Ind. – The Defiance College baseball program has two players who earned All-Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference recognition this season, with both being named honorable mention. The HCAC office announced its 2021 baseball all-conference teams and major award winners on Monday morning after a vote of the league's head coaches.
Representing Defiance this year are seniors Nate Kaffenbarger (De Graff, Ohio/Indian Lake) and Cohen Nies (Logansport, Ind./Lewis Cass), who are both four-year players for the Yellow Jackets. Kaffenbarger is listed as an outfielder on DC's roster but wound up as the regular shortstop this past season while Nies is a right-handed pitcher.
In 2021, Kaffenbarger started all 39 games, posting a .311 batting average while leading the team in hits (50), at-bats (161), home runs (five), doubles (nine), total bases (78), extra-base hits (16), runs batted in (40) and assists (85). Currently, he ranks 10th in the HCAC in RBIs.
Nies, the ace of the pitching staff, made 12 appearances with 10 starts during the spring. He led Defiance in innings pitched (58.2) and strikeouts (57). In the strikeouts looking category, he is seventh in the conference with 18.
In all, there were 42 players honored, including 16 on each of the first and second teams. Recipients of special awards also were revealed for Player of the Year, Pitcher of the Year, Newcomer of the Year and Coach of the Year.
As a squad, the Yellow Jackets struck out 265 batters in 2021, setting a single-season school record before finishing 6-33 overall and 6-31 in HCAC play (10th place).