Baseball: Sappington named ABCA All-American

Rockhurst’s Mark Sappington was named to the 2012 American Baseball Coaches' Association NCAA Division II All-America baseball team. Sappington earned a spot on the third team. A total of 51 student-athletes, representing 41 institutions were named to either the first, second or third team All-America squad.

Sappington was earlier named to the Daktronics, Inc., NCAA Division II All-America Third Team. Members of the NCAA Division II College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) selected the All-America teams. The All-America team is sponsored by Daktronics, Inc., an acknowledged world leader in scoring, timing and programmable display systems for virtually every sport at every level of competition.

The junior right-hander compiled a 10-3 record with a 1.78 ERA in 96 innings in helping lead Rockhurst to a second-place finish at the Midwest Regional in the 2012 NCAA Division II Baseball Championships. He appeared in 16 games, making 14 starts with five complete games and recording one save. Sappington finished with 101 strikeouts, while limiting opponents to a .198 batting average.

Sappington also collected first team All-Region awards from the American Baseball Coaches Association, Daktronics and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association. Sappington ranks 10th in strikeouts, 28th in ERA and hits allowed per nine innings (6.38), and 44th in strikeouts per nine innings (9.47) among Division II pitchers.