The Northern Athletics Conference (NAC) announced the 2012 postseason baseball awards on Tuesday morning, with first year Dominican University head coach Steve Hardman being voted Co-Coach of the Year by the NAC Coaches after he orchestrated a 12-game turnaround in leading the Stars to a 21-22 overall record.  Additionally, the Hardman-led Stars posted an even 11-11 mark in NAC regular season play to earn the program’s first appearance in the NAC Baseball Tournament and the Stars’ first postseason appearance since 2006.
 
Hardman shares the honor with Aurora University’s Shaun Neitzel who has led the Spartans to back-to-back-to-back NAC Tournament Championships with an overall record of 36-8 and going 18-4 in NAC regular season action.
 
Hardman’s Stars led the NAC with 123 stolen bases on the season and ranked seventh nationally in stolen bases per game (3.08) and eighth in stolen bases.  Additionally, the Stars ranked in the top 30 nationally with 25 sacrifice flies on the season with Chris Kemp (Oak Lawn, Ill.) and Lenny Cunzalo (Chicago, Ill.) ranking in the top 50 in the country in leading the team with five sac flies apiece.
 
Joining Hardman with postseason accolades for the Stars was freshman right-hand pitcher Cody Mueller (Addison, Ill.) who landed on the NAC All-Freshman Team after posting a 4-2 record on the mound.  Mueller posted a 4.88 earned run average, surrendering just 28 earned runs over 51.2 innings pitched.  The Stars’ freshman struck out 6.62 hitters per nine innings with 38 strikeouts to 25 walks.
 
The Stars’ season came to a close last Friday, as Dominican was one of the last four teams standing in the six-team 2012 NAC Baseball Tournament after knocking out Edgewood College with a 6-5 win before falling to neighborhood rival Concordia Chicago Cougars for the Stars’ second loss of the double-elimination style tournament.  The Cougars went on to finish as the tournament runner-up earned an at-large bid to the 2012 NCAA Division III Midwest Regional.  In fact, seven of the Stars’ 22 losses on the season came at the hands of teams in the 2012 NCAA DIII Midwest Regional.