After a breakout season that saw the squad more than quadruple its regular-season win total, four players from the Purdue University Calumet baseball team were honored by the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference, as released Wednesday.
Junior shortstop Cody Dykema (Crown Point, Ind./Lake Central) was selected to the all-CCAC First Team, while senior pitcher Anthony Spangler (Lansing, Ill./TF South) was named to the CCAC Second Team.
Senior first baseman Anthony Colosimo (Lake Forest, Ill./Loyola Academy) and fellow classmate and infielder Micah Rooke (Robertsdale, Ind./Clark) both earned Gold Glove Team honors for their stellar play in the field.
Dykema, in his first season in a Peregrine uniform, led the squad with a .403 batting average, which ranked fourth overall among conference leaders. He totaled 48 hits and led the team in doubles (eight) and triples (two) and home runs (two). He added 19 RBI and a .555 slugging percentage , reaching base 50.7 percent of the time. Dykema was also a perfect 9-for-9 on stolen bases and made just eight errors in 35 starts at shortstop, where he recorded a .946 fielding percentage.
Spangler had a dazzling year on the mound, finishing with a 5-1 record in eight starts with two shutout victories, both in CCAC play. He struck out a team-high 38 batters and held opponents to a .234 batting average in 56.2 innings pitched. Spangler compiled two complete games and walked just 11, gave up seven extra base hits – all doubles – and didn’t give up a home run against 156 batters faced.
Colosimo, who started 37 games at first base, completed his second full season without an error, recording 357 putouts and 14 assists for a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage. In two seasons, the senior has 522 putouts and 31 assists in 64 total starts – all without an error. He batted .289 on the year with six doubles and 23 RBI.
Rooke started 31 games at either third or second base, committing just seven errors while recording 31 putouts and 82 assists for a .942 fielding percentage. The senior also had quite the year at the plate, batting .302 with 38 hits, four doubles, and 15 RBI.
Holy Cross College’s Jacob Lanning took home Player of the Year honors while St. Francis’ Adam Panaytovich was named Pitcher of the Year. Freshman of the Year honors went to Roosevelt’s Brady Kostecki and USF Head Coach Brian Michalak was named Coach of the Year after the Fighting Saints captured the regular season conference title.
The Peregrines completed a remarkable turnaround in just their second season as a program, as they finished the regular season with a 23-16 overall record and 16-14 mark in CCAC play to qualify for their first conference tournament in Purdue Calumet’s first season of eligibility.
Purdue Calumet went 5-24 in in its inaugural season of 2014, when the Peregrines were not yet considered a conference member.
