Jun. 23—Five baseball players from Purnell Swett and two from Lumberton earned All-Sandhills Athletic Conference honors, the conference announced Monday.
Purnell Swett’s Jonathon Jacobs, Kylan Ransom, Ethan Wilkins, Keithyn Hunt and Braeden Oxendine and Lumberton’s Hunter Beasley and Garret Smith earned selections.
Only Pinecrest, who won the SAC title, had more All-SAC players than the Rams, who reached the third round of the 4A state playoffs as the last SAC team remaining and finished 11-6.
Jacobs and Hunt earned selections and two-way players. Jacobs was 3-2 on the mound with a 1.77 ERA and 70 strikeouts and hit .341 with 10 RBIs and five extra-base hits. Hunt was 4-1 with a 5.03 ERA — a misleading mark as he had several strong performances — and 45 strikeouts and hit .320 with 11 RBIs.
Oxendine led the Rams with a .367 average and had eight RBIs and nine runs. Ransom hit .356 with 19 runs, eight RBIs and eight extra-base hits; Wilkins his .333 with 12 RBIs and seven extra-base hits.
Beasley led Lumberton (7-6) with a .378 average and had eight RBIs and 12 runs. Smith was 3-2 pitching with a 2.05 ERA and 32 strikeouts.
R.J. Sales from SAC champion Pinecrest was named SAC Player of the Year; the Patriots’ Colby Wallace was the league’s Pitcher of the Year and Jeff Hewitt was named Coach of the Year.
Other All-SAC selections included Pinecrest’s Cam Bunker, Jackson Kuhn, J.D. Scarborough and Ryder Douglas; Scotland’s Lane Roberson, Jackson Sellers, Eric Romaine, Parker Byrd and Bryant Kimbrel; Richmond’s Cameron Way, Alston Johnson and Matthew Walker; Jack Britt’s Marcus Novy; and Hoke County’s Takoda Hardin.