Elliott, Adams arrayed with All-American honors
Published 3:40 pm Friday, May 25, 2018
PEMBROKE, N.C. — Lincoln Memorial’s Ethan Elliott and Tyler Adams have been named to the 2018 National Collegiate Baseball Writers of America (NCBWA) All-America honorable mention squad.
Elliott and Adams have both reaped the rewards from outstanding individual seasons. Elliott was the South Atlantic Conference Pitcher of the Year, the SAC Championship Most Valuable Player, an All-SAC first team pick and an All-Southeast Region honoree from the D2CCA, the NCBWA and the ABCA.
Adams was an All-SAC second team selection, a SAC Championship All-Tournament team pick and a member of the ABCA, NCBWA and D2CCA All-Southeast Region squads.
Elliott and Adams were also two of the heroes of the Railsplitters’ run to their second consecutive SAC tournament title, which sent Lincoln Memorial to the NCAA tournament for the third time in program history. Elliott threw a 142-pitch, seven-inning gem in a victory over Carson-Newman in game one of the SAC Championship and then returned three days later to hold Catawba scoreless over three innings of relief in an 11-inning win over Catawba in the SAC title game. Adams sent that same game to extra innings with a game-tying, three-run homer in the top of the ninth inning.
A product of Knoxville, Tennessee, Elliott went 10-3 with a 2.95 ERA, a program-record 124 strikeouts and a .239 batting average against over 100.2 innings of work. He allowed just 91 hits and walked only 21 over that span. Notching just the third 10-win season in program history and the second of his career, Elliott established the program record with 11.09 strikeouts per nine innings and tossed the second-most innings in single-season history.
Elliott spun three complete games and went at least seven innings in eight of his 14 starts. He finished with double-digit strikeouts on eight occasions, including a season-high 12 in a complete-game two-hitter against Carson-Newman. He fanned 11 in a complete-game victory at eventual SAC champions Catawba and won his last five appearances, including a complete-game gem against Georgia College in the Southeast Regional opener.
Adams – a shortstop from Woodstock, Georgia – started 56 of the Railsplitters’ 57 games and racked up a .356 batting average while leading the team in runs with 72, doubles with a program-record 23, homers with 12, total bases with 132, walks with 32 and stolen bases with 14 on 14 attempts. Adams’ 56 starts were the second-most in program history, while his 72 runs fell just two shy of matching the program record.
The sophomore led Lincoln Memorial with 22 multi-hit games and produced 12 multiple-RBI performances. He compiled a 14-game hitting streak from February 19-March 16 with eight multi-hit games over that span. He ended the season riding a 13-game hitting streak that featured four consecutive multi-hit efforts. Adams reached base safely in each of the last 16 games.
It marks the second straight season that a Railsplitter has collected All-American accolades, as Logan Augustine earned that distinction following the 2017 campaign.