May 15, 2001
Lafayette, La. - Three Hilltopper baseball players awarded All-Sun Belt Conference at the pre-tournament banquet on Tuesday evening. All three were first-time selections.
Senior second baseman and pitcher Brian Houdek was a unanimous selection on the first team as a utility player. The Dyer, Ind. native stated 54 games during the 2001 regular season, recording a .336 batting average with 30 RBI. On the mound he compiled a 7-3 record as Western's third conference starter. He also leads the staff with 95 strikeouts in only 74.2 innings of work. Houdek finished with 10 multi-hit games in Sun Belt Conference games, including a 5-for-5 performance against Arkansas State, and four-hit outings against both South Alabama and Louisiana Tech. On the hill, he recorded 10 strikeouts in conference games against both Louisiana-Lafayette and Arkansas State, and turned in nine-strikeout performances against Middle Tennessee and Louisiana Tech.
Junior Ryan Cattell was also selected first-team catcher by conference coaches. Cattell, a junior from Minnetonka, Minn., leads the club with 11 home runs and 40 RBI in 48 games played. His four-hit, five-RBI performance against New Orleans was good enough to earn him Sun Belt Player-of-the-Week honors. He also had a five-RBI performance in the series finale at New Mexico State, a game where he also hit two home runs. He drove in four runs in the middle game at South Alabama, helping the Hilltoppers to an 11-10 extra-inning win over the Jaguars.
Senior Matt Fox was recognized for his strong season, being named to the second-team outfield. The Louisville, Ky. product enters the SBC tournament as the conference leader in both hits and doubles. Fox will enter the conference tournament with 22 doubles, needing only two more to tie Chris Turner for the most by a Hilltopper in a single season. He has also been the most durable Hilltopper, playing in all 56 games while starting 55, all in left field. He finished the conference season with 11 multi-hit games, including a four-hit game against Arkansas State and a three-hit performance in Saturday's regular season finale at Louisiana Tech. His .367 batting average in tops on the Western squad. He also put together a 17-game hitting streak earlier in the season which ranked as the seventh longest streak in Western history.
The fourth-seeded Hilltoppers will begin Sun Belt Tournament play tomorrow when they meet fifth-seed New Orleans at 4 p.m. (CDT). The winner of that contest will meet the winner of #1 Middle Tennessee and #8 Arkansas State at 7 p.m. on Thursday in the winners bracket of the double-elimination tournament.
-- WKU --
