2023 Baseball GVC Award Winners
Three Eagle sophomores earned Golden Valley Conference honors. Catcher Connor Jones and outfielder Dewitt Nunery were named All-GVC 2nd Team, and righthanded pitcher Carson Jones was All-GVC Honorable Mention. The Jones brothers also received two of the Eagles' three postseason team awards. Connor was named MVP and Carson took home the pitching staff's Cy Young award.
#17 Connor Jones – Second Team All-GVC and Eagles' team MVP. "The number one thing about Connor is his unparalleled leadership qualities," said Cadola. "He's like having a fourth assistant coach. He worked with the pitchers as a coach and was a leader for the team. He led by voice and example. I could depend on him when my eyes weren't there. He held guys accountable to the level coaches do. He was so valued. I could trust him to see things I maybe didn't see… I would take him right now if he wanted to be a coach for us." Connor led the Eagles overall with a .358 batting average, .466 on base percentage, 34 hits, and 8 doubles. He tied for the team lead with 18 walks, was second behind Drew Raebel with a .505 slugging percentage, and only struck out 11 times in 30 games. He ranked 9th among GVC players in overall batting average, 7th in on base percentage, 13th in slugging, and had the fourth lowest strikeout rate among players in conference with more than 60 at-bats.
#10 Dewitt Nunery – Second Team All-GVC. Cadola described Nunery's swing as "extremely whippy. He hits the ball really hard and makes defensive guys uncomfortable." But the coach praised him even more for making it a priority this season to become better at hitting curve balls. Always able to hit fast balls, Cadola said Nunery "struggled as a freshman and was fighting for playing time because he wasn't great at making adjustments in the box." He made those adjustments this year, and it showed late in the season. Over the final four series of the season, Nunery raised his GVC batting average from .280 to .314 and raised his overall average to .344. That improvement "was directly tied to his Second Team All-GVC placement," Cadola said. "It was great for him to prove he could do it and improve his stock to go to the next level. He started receiving interest from four-year schools." Nunery led the Eagles with 21 runs batted in, and his .344 overall average and .423 on base percentage were both second-best on the team. He tied for second with Taiyo Kurosawa with 31 hits.
#44 Carson Jones – All-GVC Honorable Mention, Eagles' team Cy Young award. Coach Cadola said, "I could run him out there every Friday for the first game of a series and he would command the zone throwing strikes. He led us to victories." Cadola believes Carson could have made All-GVC if "things would have rolled his direction. He was a leader of the team and took control of the pitching staff. He took stress off my shoulders with the pitching staff and helped make sure guys developed." Like his brother Connor, Cadola said he would take Carson "right now" as a coach if he wanted to join the staff. Carson led Eagle pitchers overall with 55 strikeouts, 65.2 innings pitched, and a strikeout per 9 innings rate of 7.54, which was 8th best among GVC players. In conference play, he ranked 6th among GVC pitchers with 35 strikeouts in 42.2 innings.