OKLAHOMA CITY – The Sooner Athletic Conference announced its 2020 Spring Academic All-Conference selections on Friday and 21 student-athletes from the Mid-America Christian baseball and softball teams were selected to the distinguished list.

The MACU softball team had 12 standouts named to the Academic All-SAC squad while nine players from the Evangels baseball team made the cut.

In order to be selected, a student-athlete must have competed during the 2020 season and maintained a 3.25 GPA between the fall and spring semesters.

Despite the season being cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the MACU baseball team put together its first winning season in the NAIA era (2008-present) by going 21-10 overall. The Evangels were also one of six teams to be named to the Sooner Athletic Conference Scholar Team list.

The Evangels were on-pace for a record-breaking year in all facets of the game as the team was scoring a program-record clip 7.4 runs per game, the pitching was giving up a record-low 3.53 ERA and the defense was notching an NAIA era best .960 fielding percentage.

MACU started off the season strong by going 14-6 in the month of February to complete the winningest month in the history of the program. Despite hitting a four-game losing streak at the end of the month, the Evangels got back on-track in the month of March by winning six of the first eight games before the season was abruptly halted on March 12.

Junior catcher Yan Ely Adames led the Evangels bats during the campaign, recording a team-high .372 batting average while finishing second in doubles (10), runs batted in (29) and runs scored (26). The Jarabacoa, Dominican Republic product's sensational season landed him on the All-Sooner Athletic Conference Team.

A junior shortstop from Sosua, Dominican Republic, Edgar Martinez also had a fine season from the plate by also batting .372, leading the team in doubles (11) and runs (30) as well as stealing the second-most bases (8).

MACU junior pitcher and outfielder Jaily Paredes came in and made an immediate impact from the plate and the mound in his first season with the Evangels. On-top of also batting .372, Paredes led the team in home runs (5), slugging percentage (.602) and on-base percentage (.462).

The Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic native is also just the second MACU pitcher to ever record a sub-one earned run average after throwing at least 20 innings, allowing just a 0.99 ERA and 10 walks with 32 strikeouts over 27.1 innings of work.

In his return from injury a season ago, redshirt senior starter Keisy Portorreal also returned to his 2018 NCCAA All-American form. The Santiago, Dominican Republic product went 4-1 over seven starts and allowed only a 2.21 ERA with a team-high 36 strikeouts and just nine walks through 40.2 innings.

The Mid-America Christian softball team achieved an incredible level of success both on the field and in the classroom during the 2019-20 academic year. As a team, the Evangels posted a combined GPA of 3.72, earning SAC Scholar Team honors earlier this week with the highest GPA of any softball team in the league.

The Evangels opened the 2020 season by winning nine of its first 10 games before hitting a tough part of the schedule. However, MACU still recorded its sixth winning campaign in the last seven years with a 10-8 record before the season was called due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Seven Evangels collected All-Sooner Athletic Conference honors, headlined by first baseman Olivia Roberts being selected as the SAC Freshman of the Year and named to the All-SAC First Team. In her debut season, Roberts batted a team-best .429 with a .476 on-base percentage while also ranking second in RBIs (14) and slugging percentage (.554).

Senior catcher Hannah Salmon closed out her highly decorated Evangels career with one more honor as she was also named to the All-SAC First Team. The local Oklahoma City product batted .353 in her final campaign, leading the squad with 17 RBIs and finishing second on the squad with 15 runs scored.

For the complete list of Winter Academic All-SAC recipients from MACU, check out the list below.

Softball (12)

Caitlin Butler

Ribbin Dorado

Faith Hollingsworth

Jessica Holt

Regan Martin

Amber O'Bryant

Camenda Osborn

Adrienne Phillips

Olivia Roberts

Hannah Salmon

McKenzie Smith

Kylie Stubbs

Baseball (9)

Leonel Bejaran-Specht

Joshua Fernandez

Andres Gonzalez

Bernardo Moreno

Keisy Portorreal

Brandon Reese

Pedro Reyes

Frank Souza

Ryan Wimbush