EIU Baseball, Track Athletes Gain Honors

Eastern Illinois centerfielder Grant Emme was named a freshman All-American by Collegiate Baseball Magazine on Wednesday.  Emme becomes the fifth EIU player to earn Freshman All-American honors and the first since Brant Valach won the award in 2012.

Emme was named to the Ohio Valley Conference All-Freshman team this season as he hit .349 to rank sixth in the OVC.  Emme added 12 doubles, four home runs and 30 RBI as he started 48 games.  Emme was seventh in the OVC this season with 14 stolen bases in 17 attempts.   He would miss the Panthers OVC Tournament appearance after suffering a hand injury in the final regular season game at VMI.

Emme was one of three OVC players to earn Freshman All-American honors joining Garrett Spain of Austin Peay and John Dyer of Tennessee Tech.

Two Players Selected in ML Draft

Eastern Illinois baseball had two players selected in this year’s Major League Baseball Draft as Michael YaSenka and Jimmy Govern both heard their names called on Wednesday as the 2019 draft concluded.

YaSenka was selected in the 17th round with the 515th overall pick by the St. Louis Cardinals.  Govern was taken in the 30th round with the 889th overall pick by the Kansas City Royals.

It marks the first time since the 2012 season that EIU has had multiple players selected in the same draft.

YaSenka is a junior right-handed pitcher from Franklin, Pa., who moved into the role as the Panthers Friday night starter during the season.  YaSenka led the Panthers with 100 strikeouts this season which ranked fifth in the Ohio Valley Conference and was the second best single season total in school history.  He posted a 4-7 record with a 5.56 ERA during the season going five or more innings in 14 of 15 starts.  In his final start at the OVC Tournament, YaSenka pitched six innings allowing one run on five hits with five strikeouts.  His longest outing of the season was eight innings against Murray State while he had a season high 11 strikeouts against Eastern Kentucky.  YaSenka began his career at Chesapeake CC in Maryland.

Govern is a senior second baseman from Libertyville, Ill., who was one of the top power hitters in school history during his four seasons with the Panthers.  Govern was a two-time first-team All-OVC selection at second base and recently was named a third team All-American by Collegiate Baseball becoming only the second Division I All-American in program history.  This season Govern hit .326 with 16 doubles, 16 home runs and 52 RBI.  Earlier this season he hit for the cycle in a win at Alabama State.  Govern completed his career ranking fourth in career home runs with 35, sixth in career RBI with 143 and seventh in career runs scored with 157.

Wilson, Rieger Named To Google Cloud Academic All-Region 5

Ashton Wilson and Louisa Rieger from Eastern Illinois men’s and women’s track and field were both named to the Google Cloud Academic All-Region 5 team on Tuesday as voted on by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).  Wilson and Rieger will now both be placed on the ballot for Academic All-America honors.

Wilson competed in multi’s for the EIU men’s team as he performed in the heptathlon during the indoor season and decathlon during the outdoor season.  Wilson helped the Panthers win the 2019 Ohio Valley Conference Outdoor Championship scoring points in the decathlon and high jump.  He would finish fourth in the decathlon scoring 5,412 points.  He was eighth in the high jump and placed ninth in the javelin.  During the indoor season Wilson was fifth in the heptathlon and sixth in the high jump at the OVC Championships as the Panthers were the meet runner-up.   In his career Wilson has been a second team All-OVC performer in the high jump.  He has been named an Arthur Ashe Scholar by Diverse and earned the EIU Presidential Award as a senior.  Wilson holds a 3.95 GPA in Exercise Science.

Rieger competed in multi’s for the Panther women’s team as she performed in the pentathlon during the indoor season and heptathlon during the outdoor season.  Rieger scored points for women’s team at the 2019 OVC Outdoor Championships placing fourth in the heptathlon with 4,613 points.  She also ran the third leg on the 4x400 meter relay team that placed eighth and was the ninth place finisher in the 400 meter hurdles.  During the indoor season she scored 3,239 points in the pentathlon.  Rieger currently ranks third all-time at EIU in points scored in the pentathlon and third all-time at EIU in points scored in the heptathlon.  She has been awarded the OVC Academic Medal of Honor.   Rieger holds a 4.00 GPA in MIS / Business Analytics.