Morehead State baseball freshmen Jackson Feltner, Ryley Preece and Luke Helton have been honored with postseason all-conference awards with Feltner earning the program's first-ever Freshman of the Year accolade.
In addition, Feltner was tabbed the OVC's top first baseman, earning First-Team honors as well as a nod to the All-Freshman Team. Preece and Helton were also selected to the All-Freshman Team.
Hailing from nearby Louisa, Ky., Feltner ranks not only as the OVC's best freshman hitter, but second among all true freshmen in Division I with a .397 average heading into the OVC Tournament this week.
After hitting a pair of home runs in Morehead State's series at Tennessee Tech, Feltner became the fifth freshman in program history to hit double-digit homers in a season. He's the first to hit 10-plus homers as a freshman since Taylor Davis in 2009 and currently ranks tied for fourth in program history in freshman season homers with 11. Ten of his 11 long balls came versus conference teams
Also picking up a hit in each game of last weekend's series at Belmont, Feltner improved his conference-leading hitting and reached base streaks to 26 and 35 games respectively. At 26 games, his hitting streak marks the second-longest hitting streak in program history, behind only Glenn Jones 31 game hitting streak spanning the 1980 and 1981 seasons. Feltner's 35 game reached base streak ranks seventh-longest in program history. He got at least one hit in every OVC game except one.
He is one of only two OVC players to rank in the top five of the three major slash lines (batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage). Feltner owns a .653 slugging number and a .453 on-base percentage. He put together 18 multi-hit efforts and 12 multi-RBI performances.
Preece, another in-state standout from Paintsville, Ky., heads into postseason play with a .324 batting average. He's slugged five home runs and hit seven doubles while recording 21 RBI.
Preece was named the OVC Player of the Week following an eight-hit weekend in a series win at Austin Peay. Four of his five homers came that weekend alone when he recorded nine RBI.
He ranks third on the team with 13 multi-hit games and had seven multi-RBI outings.
Helton, from Whiteland, Ind., settled into the Eagles' No. 2 starter role and responded with a 3-2 record and a .485 ERA in his first full college season. Helton has notched 55 strikeouts in 55 innings.
Helton has four games with seven or more punchouts, including a pair of nine K efforts against Ohio and Belmont.
