FORT WORTH, TX:  The Ernie Banks-Bobby Bragan DFW Chapter of the Society of American Baseball Research (SABR) has named its Collegiate Players of the Year for the 2017 season.  Texas Wesleyan University's Luis Roman received the SABR Metroplex Carroll Beringer Award recognizing him as the area's College Division Player of the Year.  Dallas Baptist University's Austin Listi received the Howard Green SABR Metroplex University Division Player of the Year Award.
 
The awards were chosen by the 2017 SABR Banks-Bragan Chapter awards committee and will be presented during an on campus athletic event in the spring by SABR President Paul Rogers and Vice President Bo Carter.
 
Roman, a third baseman from Ponce, Puerto Rico, is the fifth Ram to receive the recognition since 1993 and the second to claim the College Division award since it was named for Texas Wesleyan Athletic Hall of Fame member Carroll Beringer in 2011.  Jake Howeth was the last Ram to accomplish the feat in 2014.
 
The award celebrates the memory of former Fort Worth Cats standout and longtime SABR member Carroll Beringer, who pitched in professional baseball for 14 years, was the 1959 Texas League Player of the Year with the Fort Worth Cats and served as the bullpen coach for the Los Angeles Dodgers (1961-72) and Philadelphia Phillies (1973-78).  Beringer was inducted to the Texas Wesleyan Athletic Hall of Fame in 1994 for his meritorious support of the TXWES Baseball Program.
 
Roman, a 6'0", 220lb, senior, batted .370 with 41 extra base, 17 home runs and 68 RBI. He paced the team in at bats (219), runs (69), doubles (20), triples (4), home runs (17), RBI (68), total bases (160), slugging (.731), walks (37), and on base percentage (.462).  He also played sterling defense as the starting third baseman in all 62 games for the 47-15 Rams.
 
He was selected in the 23rd round of the MLB Draft by the San Diego Padres, while becoming the 41st Texas Wesleyan player to be drafted and the fourth in the tenure of Head Coach Mike Jeffcoat.
 
Roman's performance led the Rams to the program's third-highest win total in 48 seasons of varsity baseball. The team was the Sooner Athletic Conference regular season and tournament runner-up and advanced to the semifinals of the NAIA National Championship Opening Round tournament.
 
He led the Rams to a ranking of 12th nationally - their highest national ranking since 2008 when they climbed to eighth. Roman's 17 home runs mark the highest total by a Ram during Jeffcoat's 16-year tenure, and he ranked 23rd nationally in home runs, 12th in total bases, 17th in runs scored, and 22nd in RBI.  He ranked in the Top 50 nationally in 11 different statistical categories. 
 
In the SAC, Roman ranked second in runs scored and total bases, third in home runs, RBI and slugging percentage, fifth in triples, and seventh in doubles.
 
Roman and Listi join the likes of previous SABR awardees such as San Francisco Giants' star Hunter Pence (Major League Baseball All-Star) as well as Michael Choice of UTA, TCU's Brandon Finnegan, Scott Malone and Lance Broadway, as well as DBU's Drew Holder, Brandon Harper, Evan Bigley, Jason Krizan, Brandon Koch, and Boomer Collins (who also starred at TCU and Texas A&M), among others.