FORT WORTH, TX:  The Sooner Athletic Conference has announced its 2018 Baseball All-Conference team.  Five members of the Texas Wesleyan University team were among those honored including Kiki Menendez who was named 2018 SAC Player of the Year.
 
The SAC All-Conference team features 33 players (16 on the 1st-team and 17 on the 2nd-team) and was voted upon by the league's head coaches.
 
Cory Gallegos and Jacob Barfield joined Menendez as 1st-team selections while Julio Ibarra and Brad Sugg were named to the 2nd-team.  Menendez was named Player of the Year and Ibarra received a Gold Glove award at first base.

The Rams await a possible at-large bid to the NAIA National Tournament Opening Round.  The field of 45 teams, comprised of nine five-team double elimination tournaments, will be announced Thursday, May 10, at 3:00 p.m. on the NAIA Facebook page.
 
Texas Wesleyan is looking to make its third consecutive appearance in the National Tournament Opening Round and their sixth appearance since the NAIA went to the opening round format in 2009.
 
Kiki Menendez – 6'2" Senior Outfielder, Austin, TX – 1st-team – Player of the Year
 
Menendez has had the single most prolific offensive season in Texas Wesleyan history.  He leads the nation with a school record 26 home runs and has combined that power with incredible consistency.  In addition to the home run record his .466 batting average and his .995 slugging percentage are both well ahead of the school records of .444 and .856.  He has set school records with 89 hits and 190 total bases and needs just seven runs to match the record of 73 and seven RBI to match the record of 91.  He also had a school-record 21-game hitting streak and has hit safely in 46 of 51 games played.
 
Menendez leads the nation with 26 home runs, 190 total bases and a .995 slugging percentage.  He ranks second with 84 RBI, fifth with his .466 AVG, fifth with 23 doubles, eighth with 89 hits, and 15th with 66 runs scored, and he has accomplished all of that while ranking 96th nationally with just 191 at bats.
 
Jacob Barfield – 6'0" Senior Outfielder, Pearland, TX – 1st-team
 
Barfield has had an outstanding season, batting .341 with 15 doubles, 14 home runs and 42 RBI.  His 14 home runs rank second on the team and third in the conference.  He also ranks fourth in the conference with a .754 slugging percentage.  He ranks 11th nationally in home runs per game (.326) and slugging percentage.  This season he has posted a 10-game hitting streak and has matched Menendez's school record by reaching base safely in each of his last 30 games.  Barfield has also been a versatile defensive player seeing time in the outfield as well as at first base and notching a fielding percentage of .974.
 
Cory Gallegos – 5'7" Senior Catcher, Corpus Christi, TX – 1st-team
 
Gallegos has been a tremendous addition to the team in his first season with the Rams.  He is batting .353 with six doubles, seven home runs and 26 RBI.  He has also provided outstanding defense both behind the plate and at third base with a fielding percentage of .958 while throwing out 37% of potential base-stealers.
 
Julio Ibarra – 6'0" Senior First Baseman, Caracas, Venezuela – 2nd-team – Gold Glove
 
Ibarra earned his second consecutive 2nd-team All-SAC and SAC Gold Gove awards.  This season he ranks second on the team with a .413 batting average while ripping 14 doubles and 8 home runs and driving in 40 runs.  He has slugged .744 with a .482 on base percentage.  In his last 26 games he is batting .494 (41-for-83) with 8 home runs and 34 RBI.  He ranks 13th nationally in slugging percentage and 22nd in batting average.  Amongst SAC hitters, he rates 3rd in AVG and 5th in slugging.  He also made just one error in 249 chances at first base for a fielding percentage of .996.
 
Brad Sugg – 5'10" Senior Pitcher, Burleson, TX – 2nd-team
 
This is Sugg's second All-SAC nod after being named to the 1st-team last season.  This year he is 9-1 with a 3.16 ERA and 67 strikeouts in 79.2 innings pitched while limiting opposing hitters to a .232 AVG.  He leads the SAC with nine wins and ranks 5th in ERA and 8th in opponent batting average.  In his two-year career at Texas Wesleyan he is 14-2 with a 2.89 ERA and a .228 opponents batting average.
 
Ramblings

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- Menendez is the fourth Ram to be named SAC Player of the Year in the 2017-18 school year joining Branden Jenkins (Men's Basketball), Alex Schies (Women's Golf) and Rowan Lester (Men's Golf).
 
- The Texas Wesleyan Baseball Program has had 145 All-Conference players all-time, including 25 in five years of SAC membership.  Menendez is the program's first conference player of the year since Derron Rombach was named Heart of Texas Conference P.O.Y. in 1989.  The team's last conference pitcher of the year was Steven DeFratus who, in 2008, was the third in a string of three consecutive Red River Athletic Conference Pitchers of the Year.
 
- The Kiki File
                Records Set: 26 home runs
                                89 hits
                                190 total bases
                                21-game hitting streak
                                30 consecutive games reached base safely
                                5 hits in a game (4/14 at Wayland Baptist)
                                3 Home Runs in an SAC Tournament Game
                Records Approaching: .466 AVG (new record if season ended today)
                               .437 career AVG (new record if season ended today)
                                .995 SLG (new record if season ended today)
                                .836 career SLG (new record if season ended today)
                                66 runs scored (needs 7)
                                84 RBI (needs 7)