May 19, 2011
San Antonio – Hours before they took the field Thursday night to open up the NCAA Division II South Central Regional Tournament, the St. Mary’s Rattlers’ baseball team received a dose of good news.
Starting pitchers Matt Holland and Greg Herbst and reliever Sammy Rivas were named to the Daktronics Baseball All-South Central Region First Team, it was announced Thursday afternoon. Slugging outfielder Jason Garcia also made the Second Team.
Holland (Sr., Shreveport, La.), who is expected to get the start later tonight, is 11-1 on the season with a 3.65 ERA over 14 starts. He has logged three complete games, one shutout and has struck out 66.
Herbst (Sr., San Antonio) is 8-3 with a team-high 81 strikeouts, to go along with an 8-3 record and 2.12 ERA.
Rivas (Sr., San Antonio), the standout closer who was a semifinalist for the Tino Martinez Award (given to the most outstanding D-II player), is 4-0 with 14 saves and an eye-popping 0.24 ERA. Rivas has given up a single run over 37.2 innings in 30 appearances this season.
Meanwhile, Garcia (Sr., Falfurrias, Texas) has team highs in home runs (eight) and RBIs (46) to go along with a .354 batting average.
All four players were named to the All-Heartland Conference First Team.
St. Mary’s (45-8), which moved up to No. 3 in the national rankings earlier this week, will face Incarnate Word at 7 p.m. Thursday at V.J. Keefe Memorial Stadium in the regional tournament.