8 Mainers Receive All-NECBL Honors
August 16, 2024 - New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL)
Sanford Mainers News Release
SANFORD, Maine - With its awards season winding down, the New England Collegiate Baseball League announced on Friday afternoon that 8 Sanford Mainers received All-NECBL Honors for the 2024 season.
Connor Ball (Alabama), Colin Barczi (Vanderbilt) and C.J. Willis (Quinnipiac) earned All-NECBL First Team recognition while Bijan Anvar (Franklin & Marshall), Devan Bade (Binghamton) and Tommy Ellisen (UConn) earned Second Team honors, and Caleb Shpur (UConn) and Jared Davis (Virginia Tech) were named Honorable Mentions.
Ball, who was named the Robin Roberts Top Starting Pitcher earlier this week, pitched to a 1.89 ERA over his 8 regular season appearances. The left-handed pitcher from Alabama posted a 3-0 record, 1 save and a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 31-to-9 over 38 innings pitched.
Following a regular season in which the Sterrett, Alabama native pitched to a 1.21 WHIP, Ball pitched to a .80 WHIP and a 0.00 ERA over 15 shutout innings in postseason action. Sanford's Opening Day Starter, who was also named an All-Star, saw the Mainers win in 10 of his 11 appearances between the regular season and postseason.
Ball's batterymate in 7 of his 11 appearances this season, Barczi, also received First Team Honors following his .387 batting average, .495 on-base percentage and .613 slugging percentage in the regular season. The Naperville, Illinois native recorded 29 hits, 3 home runs, 18 RBI and 17 runs scored in 25 games played.
Between his final 14 games of the regular season and his 7 postseason games, Barczi ended the 2024 season on a 21-game on-base streak in which he hit .456 (31-68) while providing 20 RBI for Sanford.
In the middle of that 21-game that spanned from the Fourth of July until August 10, Barczi also won All-Star Game MVP after going 1-2 with the game-winning RBI.
The player that Barczi drove in during the All-Star Game was Willis, a fellow Mainer and All-NECBL First Team honoree. Willis carried a slash line of .325/.462/.542 in the regular season to go along with 4 home runs, 26 RBI and 31 runs.
Willis, who hit .213 for the Valley Blue Sox in 2023, became a tough out in 2024 as he carried a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 19-to-31 over 37 regular season games. The Auburn, Massachusetts native had 7 games this summer with 3 or more hits, including when he hit for the cycle against the Keene SwampBats on June 8.
To go along with his prowess at the plate, Willis was a key component in Sanford's record-setting year on the basepaths as the outfielder, and part-time first baseman, stole 19 bases on 21 attempts.
Although not as prevalent in the running game with 8 stolen bases in 8 attempts, Bade, an All-NECBL Second Team member, found himself on base often. The third-year Mainer hit .358 (48-134) in regular season action with a .407 on-base percentage and .567 slugging percentage.
Bade, who received the Chris Ashmos 10th Player Award a season ago, paced the team with 30 RBI while also being tied for the team lead in home runs with 6. Including postseason action, the captain of this year's Mainers squad had hits in 27 of his last 30 games, a stretch that saw him hit .432 (41-95) with 4 home runs and 28 RBI.
Bade, Ball, Barczi and Willis were joined at the All-Star game by Anvar, who received All-NECBL Second Team honors as a relief pitcher. The right-handed pitcher appeared 8 times in the regular season posting a 4-0 record and 3.42 ERA over 23.2 innings of work.
Anvar, who also saw time as a starting pitcher, pitched a rain-shortened complete game shutout against the Bristol Blues as part of the Mainers' 11-game winning streak. A reliever for much of the season, Anvar allowed one earned run out of the bullpen in 13.1 innings of work.
The Larchmont, New York native was the only pitcher of the 20 that entered the All-Star Game to pitch the entirety of a 1-2-3 inning. In his lone inning of work, the bottom of the third, Anvar retired three All-NECBL members including one via a strikeout.
Ellisen, who struck out a team-leading 39 strikeouts in the regular season, joins Anvar on the pitching side of the All-NECBL Second Team. Despite not seeing his first action until June 20 and his first start until June 27, Ellisen threw the second most innings on the team, 31, while posting a 2.32 ERA and .81 WHIP.
The right-handed hurler had five starts of 7 or more strikeouts including two 10-strikeout performances, both against Keene.
During Sanford's winning streak to end the season, the redshirt junior pitched 7 innings and had 9 strikeouts against the North Adams SteepleCats on July 18 before following that up six days later with 7.1 innings of one-run baseball against the league's best offense, the Vermont Mountaineers.
Ellisen's collegiate teammate, Shpur, received All-NECBL Honorable Mention accolades following a strong month of July. Shpur, who did not appear until the Fourth of July, hit .290 with a .412 on-base percentage.
Although Shpur had four extra-base hits in the regular season, the Connecticut native often found himself on second or third base in large part due to his stolen base threat. Shpur stole 31 bases on 32 attempts in the regular season, tied for the most in the league.
In the postseason, the former Mystic Schooner stole 9 of 10 bases successfully, while seeing his batting average increase to .364. Despite a loss in Game 3 of the NECBL Championship, Shpur had a 5-hit performance including a two-run home run that tied the game in the eighth inning.
Shpur's speed was matched by only one other member of the NECBL, which was fellow Mainers and All-NECBL honorable mention, Davis. Davis, who was the only Mainers to reach the 40-game plateau in the regular season, hit .271 with a .326 on-base percentage in the regular season.
The Florida native stole 31 bases, tying Shpur for the league lead, as both Shpur and Davis place second on the Mainers' all-time single-season steals record board. Davis, who spent 2023 with Florida Southwestern State, had 7 of his 31 stolen bases over his final 10 regular season games, in which he hit .368 (14-38).
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