For the second consecutive year, the Wallace Govs have won the top three individual awards in Alabama community college baseball. The top two player awards both went to players right here in the area.
This year's ACCC Player of the Year is Cason Eubanks of Dothan. The pitcher of the Year is Reigh Jordan of Headland. For the second straight year, Ryan Ihle was named the ACCC Coach of the Year.
One thing both players have in common is they both transferred in from other schools. Eubanks transferred to Wallace after originally signing with Georgia Southern. Jordan transferred after playing one year at San Jacinto Community College in Texas, considered one of the top baseball programs in the country.
Eubanks led the nation with 28 doubles and was first in the nation with extra base hits. He hit eight homeruns, which was second in the state. He also bat .386 and had 36 RBIs.
"This means a lot to me after coming from Georgia Southern last year and not getting an at-bat," Eubanks said. "To be able to come back to my home town is special."
Eubanks admits coming from high school he wasn't quite ready for Division I baseball. He says the game sped up on him and he was fortunate to be able to come to Wallace.
Originally Eubanks was penciled in as the Govs second baseman. But when Corey Berry went down with an injury before the season started, it necessitated a position change.
"Corey was one of the best shortstops I had ever seen," Eubanks said. "It was very unfortunate that he got hurt. I just wanted to do it for him. I didn't want the team to skip a beat with me playing shortstop."
Eubanks said when he saw his name in the lineup and he was batting lead-off in that first game in the PCB Tournament, he knew the team had confidence him. That confidence was quickly rewarded when he began his college career at Wallace by hitting a home run.
"If you had told me I was going to begin my college career by hitting a homerun, I would have thought you were stupid," Eubanks said. "But it gave me confidence. I knew we were going to have a good team because of the way we bonded."
Jordan led the Conference with 11 wins. He was second in the ACCC in earned run average at 1.93. He was also second in the Conference with 60 strikeouts.
"It's an honor to be selected for this award, especially considering how many pitchers there are in the Conference," Jordan said. "I went to San Jacinto because of their reputation. But I felt like I could make a bigger impact somewhere else."
His impact was certainly felt at Wallace. He won the ACCC Pitcher of the Week Award three times and helped pitch the Govs to a regular season conference title.
"Coming to Wallace was a great opportunity. It was what was best for me. I have had a great time, I have enjoyed meeting the new guys. The coaching staff has taught me a lot. The entire year has been fun and I hope we get to continue the season."
All Ihle did was lead his team to a 44-8 season. This is the second year of a 40-win season. Last year the Govs were 42-19. But Ihle doesn't accept credit for all of his success.
"I know this award has my name attached to it, but there's a lot more that goes into that," Ihle said. "I have a tremendous coaching staff that has really helped develop these guys to what we want them to be in order to do special things. More credit goes to those guys than to the guy that writes the lineup."
And those aren't just words from Ihle. When his name was called as winner of the award, he insisted that his assistant coaches join him in accepting the award.
"The credit also goes to our players. They're the ones that win the baseball games. They're the ones that put in the work to do that. I just try to put them in the best situation in order to succeed. That's ultimately the reason this award came back to our program."
