Indiana baseball's 2023 campaign ended in June, but many players joined summer teams to keep their skills sharp, with sophomores outfielder Devin Taylor and infielder Tyler Cerny receiving accolades in their respective summer collegiate baseball leagues Tuesday.
Taylor was named the New England Collegiate Baseball League’s Rookie of the Year and Cerny was appointed to the All-Appalachian League Team. Cerny spent his summer with the Greeneville Flyboys in Tennessee, while Taylor played for the Keene SwampBats in New Hampshire.
Both players were formerly named to each league’s All-Star Game: Taylor as an outfield reserve, while Cerny started at shortstop and had two hits. Taylor also reached the four-player championship round in the NECBL home run derby out of 12 first-round contestants.
In Taylor’s first collegiate season this past spring at Indiana, the outfielder was the program’s third-ever Big Ten Freshman of the Year, hitting 16 home runs — three shy of teammate Carter Mathison’s 2022 freshman record. In the NECBL, Taylor had eight home runs in 33 games — which tied for the second-most in the league — and slashed .314/.368/.554.
Cerny joined Taylor as one of six freshmen in program history all-time to hit 10 or more home runs in their first season in Bloomington. Cerny was named to the All-Big Ten Freshman Team this past spring and homered in his Appalachian League debut on June 23. Cerny slashed .336/.376/.558 — top-10 in the league in batting average and on-base plus slugging (OPS).
Cerny struck out in 17.7 percent of his at-bats this summer, marking a sharp improvement from his near 24-percent strikeout rate with the Hoosiers in his freshman season. Taylor’s .314 average this summer was one point lower than his average with the Hoosiers, and the outfielder lowered his strikeout rate by over eight percent to just 14.9 percent of the time.
