SCAC Announces 2025 All-Conference Baseball Team

SCAC Announces 2025 All-Conference Baseball Team

ROUND ROCK, TexasMichael Smosna of McMurry University was voted the Offensive Player-of-the-Year and Otto Franz of Concordia University (Texas) was selected the league’s Pitcher-of-the-Year in exclusive 2025 all-Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) voting by the conference’s head coaches and sports information directors.  Complete Release

In the same balloting, McMurry’s Collin Bruning was named the conference’s Freshman-of-the-Year, while Trinity University head coach Tim Scannell earned SCAC Coach-of-the-Year honors for the second consecutive season.

Smosna, a junior catcher from Lubbock, Texas, is currently ranked in the top 10 in the conference in almost every offensive category heading into conference tournament. He is second in batting average (.443), slugging percentage (.765), total bases (114), hits (66) and runs batted in (52), third in doubles (16) and triples (4), fifth in home runs (8), sixth in stolen bases (16) and seventh in on-base percentage (.512). The junior earned SCAC Offensive Player-of-the-Week (3/17-3/23) honors when he led the War Hawks to a conference series win on the road against St. Thomas while hitting .533 with two home runs, a triple, four doubles and nine RBI. A top-tier backstop, Smosna handled a staff that is currently second in the SCAC in ERA and threw out 11 would-be base stealers (fifth in the SCAC). He is just the third catcher in conference history to earn Player-of-the-Year honors, following Chris Zapata of Centenary College (2017) and Bruce Maxwell of Birmingham-Southern College (2012).

In the highly competitive vote for Offensive Player-of-the-Year, Smosna received eight first-place nods during the balloting process, one more than both junior second baseman Alex Trinh of University of St. Thomas and junior outfielder Colby Christian of Concordia (Texas).

Franz, a graduate left-hander from Austin, Texas, currently leads the SCAC in wins (8), earned run average (2.55), shutouts (2), innings pitched, opponents’ batting average (.215) and is seventh in strikeouts (54). He also led the league in WHIP (wins + hits divided by innings pitched) at 1.00 after allowing just 60 hits and 18 walks in 77.2 innings of work. Franz was a two-time SCAC Pitcher-of-the-Week and two-time D3baseball.com national Team-of-the-Week honoree during the regular season, including in Week 5 when he allowed just three hits with no walks while striking out eight in an eight-inning, complete game shutout victory over Southwestern.

Franz was the runaway choice for Pitcher-of-the-Year, garnering 17 of the 22 first-place votes. Trinity first-year left-hander Jace Clay picked up two votes while University of the Ozarks junior right-hander Jake Estrada, junior right-hander Triston McGowan of Texas Lutheran University and junior right-hander Hunter Poe of McMurry received one vote each.

McMurry’s Bruning, a first-year first baseman from Abilene, Texas, leads all conference freshman in hits (54 - 11th in the SCAC), doubles (11 – T13th in the SCAC), home runs (6 – T11th in the SCAC), runs batted in (43 – sixth in the SCAC) and total bases (85 – T11th in the SCAC) heading into this weekend’s conference tournament. He is batting .375 with a .486 on-base percentage and .590 slugging percentage – all good for top 15 in the league. He was the SCAC Offensive Player-of-the-Week in Week 4 when he batted .700 (7-for-10) with seven runs scored and five runs driven in to lead the War Hawks to a 4-0 week, which included a three-game road conference sweep at Schreiner. Bruning is the second consecutive first baseman to earn SCAC Freshman-of-the-Year and fourth overall, following Alex Miller of Centenary (2024), Tyler Cauley of Texas Lutheran (2017 and Bruce Maxwell of Birmingham-Southern (2010).

Bruning earned 11 first-place votes in the Freshman-of-the-Year balloting while first-year left-handed pitcher Jace Clay of Trinity was next with seven votes. First-year designated hitter Jayden Ayala-Hinojosa of Austin College picked up three votes while first-year right-handed pitcher Chase McGarr of Southwestern University received the remaining first-place vote.

In his 27th year at the helm of the Trinity program, head coach Tim Scannell has led the Tigers to a 33‐7 overall mark (27-3 in conference play) and the current No. 8 ranking according to D3baseball.com and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association. Trinity, who enters this year’s tournament on a league-high 12 game winning streak, also sits second in the current NCAA Division III West Region rankings and 12th in the NCAA Power Index. The program’s winningest baseball coach, Scannell has amassed a career record of 871-328 (heading into this weekend’s SCAC tournament) since taking over as head coach in 1999, including 379 conference wins – the second-most conference wins in any sport in SCAC history. He is ranked in the top 10 among active NCAA Division III coaches by winning percentage at .726. This award marks the 13th time in his career he has earned SCAC Coach-of-the-Year honors, having previously been recognized in 1999, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2018, 2022 and 2024. Following the team’s national championship run in 2016, Scannell was elected the National Coach of the Year by four organizations, including the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA)/NCAA Division III National Coach of the Year.

2025 SCAC Player-of-the-Year
Michael Smosna, McMurry University, Junior, Catcher, Lubbock, Texas

2025 SCAC Pitcher-of-the-Year
Otto Franz, Concordia University (Texas), Graduate, Starting Pitcher, Austin, Texas

2025 SCAC Freshman-of-the-Year
Collin Bruning, McMurry University, First-Year, First Baseman, Abilene, Texas

2025 SCAC Coach-of-the-Year
Tim Scannell, Trinity University / 33-7 Overall Record (27-3 SCAC) / Regular Season Champs

For the complete 2025 SCAC All-Conference baseball team, click here.

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