Six Indiana baseball players received Big Ten honors Tuesday following the conclusion of the regular season.
Junior catcher Matthew Ellis was named to the All-Big Ten Third Team, while Brock Tibbitts, Evan Goforth, Josh Pyne and Carter Mathison earned spots on the All-Big Ten Freshman Team. Graduate infielder Tyler Doanes received the Sportsmanship Award, given to one player on each team in the conference.
The four freshmen selected to the All-Big Ten Freshman Team are the most since 2012, when five freshmen were selected for the honor. Current Major League Baseball player Kyle Schwarber was one of those five.
Ellis is the first catcher since Schwarber to earn all-conference honors and leads the team with 18 home runs, the fourth-most in the Big Ten conference. He also has three multi-home run games.
Mathison is right behind Ellis with 17 home runs and broke the program record for most home runs by a freshman earlier this season. He is the home run leader among conference freshmen and ranks third nationally among freshmen.
Tibbitts' nine home runs are the third-most on the team in 2022 and rank third among conference freshmen. In 55 games played, he has reached base in 46 games and has recorded at least one hit in 36.
In the second to last conference series of the season against Minnesota, Tibbits drove in his 40th RBI of the season. It's the first time in program history that three freshmen (Tibbitts, Mathison and Pyne) have each driven in more than 40 RBIs in a single season.
Pyne's 54 RBIs and 69 hits rank in the top-10 of the conference statistics. He has a team-leading 19 doubles, which is tied for fourth-most in the conference. Pyne is also batting .378 against Big Ten opponents.
Goforth has played the least amount of games out of the aforementioned freshmen, but possesses strong numbers in multiple categories. In 11 games played against Big Ten opponents, Goforth is batting roughly .450 with eleven hits, four doubles and seven RBIs.
Indiana's next conference opponent is Big Ten No. 1 seed and No. 10 nationally-ranked Maryland in the first round of the double-elimination conference tournament on Wednesday. First pitch is slated for 6 p.m. ET.
