Jake Kelchner and Christian Petrillo Named to ABCA East Region All-Defensive Team

7/5/2023 12:00:00 AM

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The awards for Goldey-Beacom's standout 2023 baseball campaign continued into July with pitcher Jake Kelchner (Collegeville, PA) and center fielder Christian Petrillo (New Brunswick, NJ) each picked to the American Baseball Coaches Association East Region All-Defensive Team.

These are far from the first awards for each this season. Kelchner also was tabbed first team All-Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference and second team Conference Commissioner's Association All-East Region with Petrillo named second team All-CACC.

Petrillo ended the season 16th in the league with a .992 fielding percentage, closing with 121 putouts and six assists over 128 chances. Kelchner had 20 assists and two putouts over 22 chances for a 1.000 percentage, but did not play the required 60 percent of the team's games to qualify among the CACC leaders.

Kelchner has been one of the conference's top pitchers, giving the Lightning consistently strong starts each time. Throwing at least six innings in nine of his last 11 starts and notching at least six strikeouts seven times, the southpaw closed first in the league with a school-record seven wins, third with 77 innings pitched (second in team history), fourth with a 3.51 ERA, seventh with 72 strikeouts (second in team history) and 22nd with a .237 batting average against.

Among his highlights, Kelchner got a season-best nine strikeouts May 5 in helping Goldey-Beacom complete a CACC Tournament first-round sweep of Jefferson in the squads' best-of-three series. He followed that with seven strikeouts May 11 in the same tournament at Post and seven strikeouts May 18 in the NCAA Tournament against Felician.

In that Felician contest, he became the first in program history to throw nine innings in a contest twice in the same season. Among the program's career marks, his wins are tied for fifth with his strikeouts and innings 10th.

Petrillo was an incredible addition with his solid hitting from the leadoff spot and more than impressive coverage of center field thanks his speed that at times seems hard to fathom. He closed 13th in the country with 37 stolen bases (second in the CACC), fourth in the league with 15 doubles, fifth with 70 hits, 18th with .335 batting average and 20th with a .430 on base percentage.

Petrillo, who went 4-for-4 in the season opener February 10 against Chowan, ended third for the Lightning with 19 multi-hit games.

The awards parade for Goldey-Beacom also included senior catcher Johnny Kampes (Colora, MD) picked first team All-CACC and second team All-East Region by the ABCA, CCA and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association. Junior third baseman Kyle Walker (Wilmington, DE) joined Kampes and Kelchner in being tabbed first team All-CACC and second team CCA All-East Region.

Goldey-Beacom (37-20) this season had another sensational campaign in which it played in the NCAA Tournament for the second time in three seasons, hosted a regional for the first time and broke the school record for most wins. The team also received votes in the NCBWA national poll prior to the NCAA Tournament, was second in the NCAA East Regional rankings and won four times against schools that competed in the NCAA Division II World Series.

This year also marked the third straight season the Lightning were part of the NCAA East Regional rankings.

Goldey-Beacom's first NCAA Tournament appearance was in 2021, when the squad notched two victories over nationally ranked Saint Thomas Aquinas. This was after the Lightning won the CACC South Division title, closing with a 22-9 overall record and 19-6 in the CACC.

The 2022 unit also excelled, ranked 14th nationally in the Collegiate Baseball preseason poll and recorded 27 wins.

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