Capital Athletic Conference Player of the Year Bret Williams helped lead the Penn State Harrisburg baseball team during its historic season.
MIDDLETOWN, Pa. — For just the second time in program history, the Penn State Harrisburg baseball team competed in the NCAA Division III Baseball Championship Tournament. The Lions received an at-large bid to the tournament following a school-record 33 wins this spring and advancing to the Capital Athletic Conference (CAC) Championship Series for the second year in a row.
The team earned the No. 2 seed in the four-team regional hosted at SUNY Cortland in May and recorded its first NCAA tournament win by beating Alvernia University 13-12. The team's historic 2019 campaign came to an end with a 7-4 loss to Tufts University in its third game of the tournament on May 18.
The Lions were led by CAC Player of the Year Bret Williams and All-Conference honorees Travis Van Houten, Miguel Torres and Zach Gettys. During the season, the team received votes in the NCBWA/D3baseball.com Top 25 Poll and won five games over nationally ranked teams.
Team captains include Scott Angstadt Jr., Brendan Riotto and Chase Smith. The team is coached by Ryan Brown.
During the season, the team also collected a number of individual accolades.
Williams, Torres and Van Houten earned D3baseball.com All-Region honors. Williams was named a D3baseball.com Mid-Atlantic Region First-Teamer, while both Torres and Van Houten received Second-Team All-Region recognition.
Williams, of Mount Carmel, led the nation in hits (88), runs (75) and total bases (161), and was second in the country in home runs (18) and runs batted in (70). He won the NCAA Division III Statistical Championships in hits, runs and total bases. Williams also was named the Capital Athletic Conference Player of the Year after winning the league's batting title, the first player in program history to earn the title. He was named a D3baseball.com First-Team All-American, becoming the first player in program history to earn All-American recognition. His other honors include NCAA Division III Mid-Atlantic Regional Player of the Year, as well as First-Team All-American and First-Team All-Region by the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) and First-Team All-Region by Rawlings. Williams also was named CAC First-Team All-Conference for the second year in a row.
Torres, of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, ended his senior campaign with the first All-Region accolade of his career. The infielder ranks second in NCAA Division III in hits (79). Torres also was named to the CAC All-Conference First Team, and ABCA Second-Team All-American.
Van Houten earned his first All-Region honor. The Saylorsburg native led the nation in runs batted in (71) and ranks fifth in the country in total bases (132). He won an NCAA Division III Statistical Championship in RBI. Van Houten also earned a pair of CAC First-Team All-Conference honors as both a starting pitcher and designated hitter.
Gettys, of York, also received All-Conference second team honors and was named CAC Pitcher of the Week during the season.
