May 20, 2008
Duquesne University senior catcher Derek Mechling (Homer City, Pa./Homer Center) has been named the Atlantic 10 Co-Player of the Year as voted on by the conference coaches. He and fellow senior first baseman Aaron Janusey (Venetia, Pa./Peters Township) were named to the All-Conference First Team while junior outfielder Mike Carroll (New Martinsville, Pa./Magnolia) was named Second Team All-Conference.
Mechling leads the Dukes in six of 12 offensive categories, including home runs with 12, RBI with 42 and runs scored with 57 while also managing to steal 17 bases. He is batting .348 for the season and leads the A-10 with a .402 average in conference play. He is third all-time at Duquesne with 24 career home runs and is fourth all-time with 135 career runs scored.
It is only the second time ever and the first time since 1999 that Duquesne has had a baseball player named Player of the Year. B.J. Barns received the award as a junior in 1999 before being drafted and leaving school early to play professionally. It also marks the first time in league history that two student-athletes were named Players of the Year.
Mechling, who shares the Player of the Year honors with senior catcher Chris Taylor of Charlotte, was also named to the league's All-Academic Team. A graduate student, Mechling boasts a 3.47 cumulative grade point average.
Janusey also made the first team on the strength of his 66 hits and .335 batting average. He is second on the team with 10 home runs and 39 RBI and leads the squad with three triples. He broke his own school record this year with 466 putouts and is the University's all-time leader in career putouts with 1,530. For his career, he is second all-time in hits (213), home runs (27), RBI (154) and hit by pitch (33). He too was named to the A-10 Academic All-Conference Team with his 3.54 gpa in accounting.
Carroll, named to the second team, leads the Dukes in batting average this year, hitting at a .361 clip. He is Duquesne's single-season leader in hit batsmen with 17 this season and is also the career leader with 38. He has smacked a team-leading 13 doubles, is second on the team in runs scored with 40 and RBI with 39 and is third with seven homers.
The third-seeded Dukes (24-27-1, 16-10) will take on sixth-seeded St. Bonaventure (29-22, 15-12) Wednesday, May 21 at 3:30 in the first round of the Atlantic 10 Championship held at Campbell's Field in Camden, N.J.
