Westmont College Athletics

By: Zach DeMarcus
June 21, 2018
 
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) Michael Stefanic from Boise, Idaho has recently been named as one of nine players to the 2018 ABCA/Rawlings-NAIA Baseball Gold Glove Team. Stefanic also received NAIA All-America Honorable Mention honors to go along with his fourth consecutive naming to the All-GSAC Team and the GSAC Gold Glove Team.
 
The NAIA Gold Glove recipients are selected by the NAIA-baseball coaches Association All-America Committee. The players are chosen based on their defensive success throughout the season
 
Stefanic finished his senior campaign with a .983 fielding percentage. In 286 chances, he committed just five errors. Over the 198 games played throughout his four years, Stefanic has had 941 chances and committed just 26 errors leaving him with a .972 career fielding percentage.
 
Stefanic is the third Warrior to receive the Gold Glove Award. Alex Bush was the most recent Warrior recipient back in 2015. Terrell Wong was the first recipient back in 2010.
 
Westmont head coach Robert Ruiz said, "It's been an honor and a privilege to coach Mike over the past four years. He's had an incredible impact on our team in a variety of ways. Defensively, he's been a four-year conference gold glove winner and I've felt for four years a contender for the national award. It's really exciting for us as a program to see him be honored in this way on the national level."
 
Stefanic's defense wasn't the only shining weapon in his arsenal as he leaves Westmont at the top of numerous career categories including: first in at bats (757), runs scored (157), hits (275), doubles (50), total bases (357), most times hit by pitch (37), second in games played (198) and RBIs (124), and fifth in batting average (.363). Surging him into the 'top Warriors of all-time' conversation.
 
Ruiz added, "The impact of his defense was a game changer. He's a guy who played pretty much every day for four years. His instincts were as good as anybody I've ever coached which allowed him to get to a lot of balls and make a lot of plays."
 
Ruiz of Stefanic's defensive consistency, "I think that definitely brought a level of confidence to our pitching staff knowing that he was back there. He's a vocal leader and a take charge kind of guy. He had that quality from the time he stepped on campus.
 
"His leadership really impacted other infielders that were either already in our program or came to our program in the time he was here. They looked to him as a guy that could show them how to work in practice, how to play confidently, and how to have a good plan and attack that every day. His influence and impact in that way is immeasurable.
 
"I don't think there is a more deserving guy to be recognized at the highest possible level than Mike Stefanic. We all felt that he was deserving of any award that's given to his position nationally. I'm really grateful that the committee saw him as the fit for that award this year and recognized not only what he did this year but over the course of his career. We're definitely going to miss him, and grateful for all the guys on the pitching staff that were able to get him so many ground balls," finished Ruiz.