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A total of five Truman State University (Mo.) Bulldog baseball players, the most in over 10 years for the program, were voted all-MIAA by league coaches on Wednesday night

Junior pitcher Ryan Trimble was a second team choice while senior pitcher Christian Witt, sophomore hurler Jarrett Eiskina, junior catcher Devon Myers and senior outfield Michael Reese were honorable mention selections.

Trimble led the MIAA in earned run average with a 2.34 ERA in eight starts totaling 50 innings of work.

In conference games, Trimble was even better with a 1.76 ERA and held opposing hitters to a league-best .174 batting average.

Trimble had a 36 inning consecutive shutout streak during the season but an injury after three innings of work on April 16th forced the junior to miss his final three turns in the rotation.

His 2.34 ERA is the lowest of any Bulldog starting pitcher since Al Nipper’s amazing 0.98 ERA in 1979. He posted the first sub 3.00 ERA since Matt Leara’s 2.75 in 1993.

Trimble was 4-3 on the season with 44 strikeouts to 14 walks.

He pitched the first complete-game shutout in over 11 years when he fanned 11 Northwest Bearcats in a three-hit, 3-0 victory and came back the next start with a one-hit, complete game shutout over Southwest Baptist on April 1st.

Trimble was a two-time MIAA Pitcher of the Week and was an honorable mention all-league choice as a sophomore.  Trimble has also been named a first-team Capital One Academic All-District player.

Jarrett Eiskina  was second to Trimble in ERA on both the team and in the conference as both pitchers were the only two qualified MIAA hurlers to post a sub 3.00 ERA.

In nine starts, the sophomore had a 2.38 ERA with a 3-3 record.

He led the team in strikeouts with 57 and walks issued with 11 before having to miss his final two starts due to an injury.

He also earned MIAA Pitcher of the Week honors after he followed up Trimble’s complete-game shutout with his own, going nine innings and striking out 11 Northwest Bearcats in a 1-0 win on March 27th.

Christian Witt finished the season strong as he also posted a sub 3.00 ERA (2.70 in 36 innings pitched).

The senior was used primarily as a reliever in the early going as he allowed five earned runs in his first nine appearances out of the bullpen.

He made his first start on April 12th, a midweek conference game against Lincoln University, and struck out eight Blue Tigers in five innings to get his second win of the year.

His next outing was again out of the bullpen, in relief of Trimble, and threw four scoreless innings, allowing just one hit in a 7-3 Truman win.

For those two efforts, he was named the MIAA Pitcher of the Week, an honor he would earn again.

His final three appearances were all starts with a 4-0, complete-game shutout over Nebraska Omaha on April 30th that earned him his second conference weekly award.

Witt used 109 pitches and struck out 12 in a two-hitter against the high-powered Maverick offense. For the season, Witt was 4-2 with 43 strikeouts to just 10 walks.

Michael Reese  hit leadoff in 47 of the 48 games played in 2011 and was second on the team with a .305 batting average.

Reese had a pair of doubles to go with 16 RBIs and stole a team-leading 14 bases out of 16 attempts. 

He was second to Devon Myers with 16 multi-hit games including a 4-for-6 outing with three runs scored against Pittsburg State on April 22nd.

Reese ends his two-year Truman career with a .303 batting average, one of just 20 Bulldogs with a minimum of 200 at bats in the history of the program to do so.

This is Myers’ second all-MIAA honor as he was voted on the honorable mention team as a freshman. 

The junior hit third in Coach Dan Davis’ line-up in all 48 games and was behind the plate in 37 contests.

As a hitter, Myers led the Bulldogs with a .310 batting average with 18 multi-hit games, 13 doubles, two triples, two home runs and 20 runs batted in.

He had a nine-game hitting streak during the season. As a catcher, Myers threw out 21-of-59 potential base stealers while handling a staff to a 4.96 ERA, the first sub 5.00 team ERA since 1992 and only second since 1982.

Myers  will enter his senior season on the verge of many Truman offensive records.

He is Truman’s active leader in hits with 154, 37 shy of the career record of 191.

He is fifth in career doubles, sixth in runs batted in with 91and ninth in total bases with 222 while also hitting .319 in 141 games.

The 2011 Bulldogs finished with 17 overall wins, the second most in school history and broke the Bulldog record with 16 conference wins, five more than the previous mark set in 1999.

The team posted five shutouts, one off the school record of six in 1976 and had four complete-game shutouts after not having one in 11 years.

The Bulldog pitching staff also set a school record in strikeouts with 273 and had several lows of over 10-plus years in runs allowed, walks allowed, home runs allowed and opponent batting average

Courtesy Truman State University