Five Cardinals earn First Team All-Landmark Conference honors

WASHINGTON – Five CUA student-athletes were named to the All-Landmark Conference Teams on Tuesday, with all five garnering First Team recognition.  Seniors Tommy Little and Tim Mierzwa were joined on the First Team by sophomores Andrew Carroll and Marc Hanna, along with freshman Colin McCarthy.

Little earns his second career All-League honor after being named to the First Team in 2008.  He also captured Rookie of the Year accolades that season.  This year, Little batted .357 for the Cardinals, totaling 41 hits, five doubles, and 10 RBIs during that time.

Little recorded nine multi-hit games, including back-to-back four-hit performances vs. Merchant Marine Academy in mid-April.  Little also stole 10 bases and posted a .947 fielding percentage with 53 putouts and only three errors.

Joining Little on the First Team is classmate Mierzwa, who earns his third straight All-League selection.  Mierzwa hit .338 this year, while starting all 41 games for CUA. The second baseman notched a team-high 48 hits, as well as 20 RBIs, eight doubles and 13 stolen bases.

Mierzwa totaled more than one hit in 14 games, with a high of four coming against Juniata.  Two of his hits that day were doubles, and he also drove in a run.  In the field, Mierzwa committed only five errors on the year, while totaling 128 assists and a .957 fielding percentage.

CUA’s top starting pitcher, Carroll went 6-4 in 2012 with a 3.66 earned run average and 39 strikeouts.  The sophomore hurler threw 59 innings this season, allowing only 24 earned runs during that time.

Carroll threw a complete game in a win over Merchant Marine Academy on April 14, striking out four in seven innings of work.  Carroll went at least five innings in eight of his appearances and struck out multiple batters 10 times, with a high of five coming in a win over Swarthmore in March.

Hanna earns his first career All-League selection, after batting .319 with 43 hits, seven doubles, and 30 RBIs in 39 games.  The sophomore third baseman also totaled a .913 fielding percentage, to go along with 24 putouts and 81 assists.

Among all Cardinals, Hanna ranked in the top-five in batting average, slugging percentage, runs scored, hits, RBIs, doubles, triples, home runs, total bases, and walks.  The New Jersey native registered 14 multi-hit games and seven games with two or more runs batted in.

Rounding out CUA’s All-Conference selections is McCarthy, who had a terrific first season in the red and black.  McCarthy led CUA and ranked among the national leaders with an impressive .410 batting average.  The freshman notched 41 hits, 10 doubles, 35 RBIs, a .620 slugging percentage, an on base percentage of .467 and 62 total bases.

McCarthy was named the Landmark Conference Player of the Week and a member of the D3Baseball.com Team of the Week, following his performance the week of March 27.  McCarthy went 7 for 11 at the dish that week, totaling four runs, a double, a home run, 10 RBIs and a 1.000 slugging percentage.  For the season, McCarthy had 12 multi-hit games and nine multi-RBI games, as well as a .987 fielding percentage.

CUA finished the 2012 season with a record of 24-17, marking the fifth straight year in which the Cardinals won at least 20 games.  One of those wins was an 8-6 victory over Stevenson on April 7, which gave Head Coach Ross Natoli the 500th win of his career.