SAN ANGELO, Texas (May 7, 2025) – Eight Lubbock Christian baseball players were honored with various Lone Star Conference postseason awards on Wednesday night, including Player of the Year Brevin McCool and Pitcher of the Year Ryan Markwardt.
 
McCool and Markwardt were both also named to the All-LSC First Team, where they were joined by Jacob Gutierrez. Nicklaus Baumbach and Shea Bowen were named to the All-LSC Second Team, and Kyle Lewis was named to the All-LSC Third Team. McCool was also selected as the All-Defensive Team third basemen, while Kade York earned the shortstop spot and Frayner Chavez was the second basemen. Finally, McCool earned the league's Academic Player of the Year award, winning for the second-straight season.
 
This is the second year in a row that Lubbock Chirstian has produced the conference player of the year, after shortstop Carson Ogilvie won the award in 2024.
 
McCool has had a stellar senior season, batting .417 and leading the nation in home runs (30), total bases (196) and slugging percentage (.985). He also ranks third in RBI (82), seventh in runs scored (72). This year, he has broken the LSC single-game, single-season and career records. Along with his 30 homers, the New Mexico native has 15 doubles and four triples. He has walked 46 times for an on-base percentage of .522, which is the highest in a season by a Chap since 2013. On defense, he has a fielding percentage of .955, with just seven errors against 88 assists. He is a Biology major with a 4.0 GPA and has already been accepted to medical school.
 
Markwardt has been the ace of the Chap staff in his third and final season at LCU, posting a 3.52 ERA in 76.2 innings of work. His 82 strikeouts are the second-most in the league, and he has walked only 41. The Itasca, Texas native is 7-3 on the year with three complete games and two shutouts. Opponents are hitting just .240 against the left-hander. Markwardt's 228 career strikeouts are the ninth-most all time in LCU history.

It is the first time a Chap has been selected as the conference pitcher of the year since 2019, when Ryan Johnson earned the Heartland Conference hurler award. 
 
LCU's final First Team selection, Jacob Gutierrez, has the second-best batting average in the conference at .428. That mark is also good for No. 21 in Division II. Of his 86 hits, he has 10 doubles, four triples and seven home runs. He has added in 23 walks for an on-base percentage of .496 while driving in 54 runs and scoring 56 more.
 
Fellow outfielder Shea Bowen was named to the Second Team after a Third Team selection in 2024. The Washington native is batting .359 and ranks second in the nation in runs scored with 83 and has driven in 55 more, even while mostly batting out of the leadoff spot. Bowen clubbed 15 doubles, four triples and 10 home runs.
 
Baumbach made a big impact in his lone season with the Chaps, earning his spot on the Second Team. The Arkansas-Little Rock transfer is batting .404 on the year and ranks fourth in the LSC in doubles with 19. He added in 16 walks for a .448 on-base percentage and also hit eight home runs. In 52 games, he drove in 53 runs and scored 52.
 
Rounding out the All-Conference selections was Lubbock native and Cooper H.S. graduate Kyle Lewis on the Third Team. In his first season with the Chaps, Lewis is batting .396 in 48 games. He has been on a tear since the start of April, batting .500 with nine doubles, a triple and three home runs in LCU's last 16 games. For the season, he has scored 47 runs and driven in 45 more. He is also second on the team in stolen bases with 10.
 
York and Chavez were both named to the All-Defensive Team with McCool after solid seasons in the middle of the infield. Chavez committed just one error all season while racking up 119 assists and 76 putouts at second base. York posted a .957 fielding percentage at shortstop with 123 assists, which is the sixth most in the LSC. The Chaps this season have turned 44 double plays, which is the most in the LSC and 13^th-most in the nation.
 
Lubbock Christian finished the regular season 31-19 for fourth place in the conference and is now 33-19 after a pair of first round wins against West Texas A&M. The Chaps will take on the No. 1 seed and host Angelo State at 6 p.m. on Thursday at Foster Field at 1^st Community Credit Union Stadium in their first game of this weekend's double-elimination tournament.