Nick Smith/Photo by Noah Clooten
Nick Smith, a catcher from Lake Region State College baseball, was named to the Mon-Dak All-Region Team.
He’s the third Royal from the spring sports season to be named All-Region. Over on the softball team, Darian Bender and Maggie Bender received honors. Smith is the only member of the baseball team to be recognized.
Smith had strong offensive stats across the board. In 29 games, he hit .318 with a .450 OBP and a .602 slugging percentage. He had an equal amount of strikeouts and walks, with 18 each. He was second on the team in both extra-base hits and home runs, with 14 and four, respectively.
Curiously, Marshel Herman wasn’t named All-Region despite having similar stats in a larger body of work. Herman played a team-high 41 games and slightly edged out Smith in batting average, OBP and slugging. He led the team with 17 extra-base hits and five home runs. He even contributed 14 1/3 innings on the mound.
Still, Smith was comfortably the second-best hitter on the team, behind only Herman. He had to miss a few games near the end of the season, and perhaps would have finished with a better season than Herman if he’d been able to play. Smith and Herman were not just the only hitters on the team with a slugging percentage above .600, but the only ones to even clear .400.
It was a struggle for the Royals in a bit of a rebuilding season under first-year head coach Laurence Arango. They were last in the Mon-Dak Athletic Conference with a record of 10-32 overall, 4-22 in conference play.
Smith and Herman were certainly exceptions, though, on a team that had the lowest batting average and OBP in the conference. Both were sophomores this year and have seen their LRSC careers come to an end.
Herman took huge strides after only posting a .668 OPS last year. Smith, meanwhile, was very good last season, but took a noticeable leap in the power department. In 44 games as a freshman, he posted a .434 OBP — similar to this season’s .450 — but only a .385 slugging percentage with one home run. He continued to get on base while also adding some pop to his game this year.
Regardless of what’s next for the sophomores, they can each be proud of putting together a quality junior college baseball career.
