DOVER — The Northeast Conference (NEC) announced its highly anticipated all-conference selections on Tuesday afternoon, and the Delaware State Baseball team dominated.
The major award winners and All-Conference selections were voted on by the league's head coaches.
The Hornets claimed two of the league's major awards as sophomore second baseman Evan Bouldin (Middletown, DE/Appoquinimink) garnered NEC Player of the Year honors and sophomore southpaw Kieran Etwaru (Wellington, FL/Palm Beach Central) was named NEC Pitcher of the Year.
Bouldin impressed all over the field this season. In the batter's box, he landed among the best in the NEC in several statistical categories. His .378 batting average and 79 hits both ranked second in the conference. In 209 plate appearances, the Middletown, DE native scored 50 runs and added 16 doubles, which landed him at sixth and tied for third in the league, respectively. He slugged .555 and notched a .430 on-base percentage for a .985 OPS. On the mound, Bouldin totaled three saves for the Hornets. Bouldin is the third Delaware State player to earn a Player of the Year award and the first as a member of the NEC. Previous Hornets earned MEAC Player of the Year honors in 1999 (Mark Circo) and 2022 (Trey Paige).
Etwaru went a perfect 7-0 on the mound with six of his wins coming against NEC opponents. The sophomore finished the regular season with the third-best ERA (3.49) and the fourth-best opponent batting average (.233) in the league. In 69.2 innings of work, Etwaru struck out 72 batters with 58 of them coming in league play. He registered a 1.306 WHIP on the season to become the first Hornet to win a Pitcher of the Year award as a NEC associate member. Delaware State had two previous MEAC Pitcher of the Year winners in Dan Perkins (2009) and Garrett Lawson (2019). The Wellington, FL native was selected as NEC Pitcher of the Week on February 20.
Joining Evan Bouldin and Etwaru on the first team for Delaware State was senior shortstop Jancarlos Colon (Santa Isabel, PR/Highland). Colon registered a .359 batting average, .455 OBP, 49 runs, three triples and 21 stolen bases to land in the top-10 in the conference in each category.
Senior first baseman Krew Bouldin (Middletown, DE/Appoquinimink) was a slugger for the Hornets, finishing with a 1.013 OPS (eighth in NEC), .452 OBP (seventh), and 52 RBIs (fifth), as he received a second team nod. He was a two-time NEC Player of the Week this season.
Delaware State has made its mark on Northeast Conference (NEC) baseball in just its second season as an associate member. The Hornets will compete in the NEC Baseball Championship tournament starting tomorrow, where they will face number four seed Wagner College.
The first pitch is slated for 3 p.m. at Heritage Financial Park in Wappingers Falls, NY.
All games will be live-streamed on NEC Front Row and ESPN+.
