Skyhawk threesome All-OVC

Posted: Friday, May 25, 2012 12:00 pm

On the eve of the Ohio Valley Conference baseball tournament, a trio of UT Martin baseball players were recognized Tuesday as Jordan Owen was voted to the league’s second team while freshmen Sonny Mastromatteo and Nico Zych were named to the All-OVC Freshman squad.
This marks the second time that Owen has posted all-conference accolades, as he also was a second teamer in 2010. Mastromatteo and Zych are the seventh and eighth players in UT Martin history to amass All-Freshman honors.
A Kansas City, Mo. native, Owen will go down as one of the program’s all-time greats. He concluded his stellar four-year career as the program’s leader in games played (204), while ranking second in hits (224), second in home runs (35), third in doubles (43) and third in RBI (134).
This spring, Owen was the only Skyhawk to have played and started in all 54 games while leading the team in nearly every major offensive category.
He paced UT Martin in batting average (.332), at-bats (199), runs scored (33), hits (66), doubles (11), triples (six, ranking second in the OVC), homers (eight), RBI (28), total bases (113), slugging percentage (.568), times hit by pitch (15) and on-base percentage (.433).
Owen also ranked first on the team with 18 multi-hit games, including a four-hit performance against Air Force on March 16 and a two-homer game against Butler on Feb. 26.
Mastromatteo was as durable as they come in 2012, logging 51 starts at second base and appearing in 52 games overall as a freshman.
The Ortonville, Mich. native hit .243 in 173 at-bats, scoring 19 runs to go along with 15 RBI. He led the team with five sacrifice hits and nine stolen bases (in 11 attempts), while also slamming six doubles and a triple.
At the plate, he stroked nine multi-hit games — including three straight against Arkansas-Little Rock on March 2-4 — and drove in a career-best three runs against OVC rival Tennessee Tech on March 25.
Mastromatteo was at his best in the clutch, as he hit .346 (18-for-52) with runners in scoring position and a blistering .545 (6-for-11) with a runner on third and less than two outs. He also was a reliable defender, posting a .951 fielding percentage to go along with 145 assists – the eighth highest single-season total in UT Martin history.
Zych saw time at shortstop (22 starts), third base (21 starts), second base (one game) and on the mound (four appearances) for the Skyhawks in 2012.
The Monee, Ill. native pieced together a dozen multi-hit games, ranking second on the team in that category. Published in The WCP 5.24.12