Tad Gold Named D3Baseball Player of the Year; Oringer Second Team All-America

2014 NCAA Division III All-America Teams – D3Baseball.com
Endicott Baseball All-America Winners

BEVERLY, Mass. – A career full of postseason accolades for Endicott baseball's senior centerfielder Tad Gold (Martha's Vineyard, Mass.) reached its peak as Gold, previously named New England's Player of the Year, was honored as the NCAA Division III Player of the Year by D3Baseball.com and a First Team All-America outfielder on Thursday afternoon. Gold was joined by junior second baseman Harry Oringer (Dartmouth, Mass.) as a 2014 All-American with Oringer earning a spot on the Second Team.

Gold along with Linfield junior Chris Haddeland (Pitcher of the Year) and Adrian shortstop Ryan Dorow (Rookie of the Year) collected the major awards from today's D3Baseball.com release with Coach of the Year honors to be announced following the conclusion of the 2014 NCAA Division III World Series. The committee of coaches, administrators, and media personnel voted on the All-America Teams based upon all statistics from the season including conference and regional tournaments. More than 700 student-athletes were nominated for the eighth annual D3Baseball.com All-America Team.

For the second straight season, the D3Baseball.com Player of the Year is an outfielder from the New England region as Tucker White (Southern Maine) received this prestigious honor in 2013. Gold, already named All-New England Player of the Year by D3Baseball.com and the NEIBA as well as Player of the Year by the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC), ended his outstanding four-year career as a member of the Endicott baseball program with a remarkable season that led the Gulls to back-to-back CCC Championships and NCAA Division III New England Regional Finals appearances. Gold and his Endicott teammates battled through a challenging non-conference and in-conference schedule to accumulate a 34-16 overall record with a 13-3 mark in league games.

Gold had a career year in 2014, batting .429 with 79 hits in 184 at bats, 60 runs scored, 45 runs batted in, and 28 stolen bases. The senior sported a .493 on-base percentage, contributed by 18 walks and six times being hit by a pitch, and a .625 slugging percentage with 27 extra-base hits including 18 doubles and nine triples. His numbers this season led to Gold ending his career atop numerous all-time Endicott records with 163 runs, 222 hits, 23 triples, and 94 stolen bases while ranking in the top five in additional statistical categories like games played (178), at bats (625), batting average (.355), stolen base percentage (.862), total bases (321), RBI (128), fielding percentage (.995), and slugging percentage (.514).

Gold's path to D3Baseball.com Player of the Year and First Team All-America honors coincided with an 18-game hitting streak from April 19^th to May 16^th in which he batted .443, had 31 hits (14 for extra bases), scored 21 runs, drove 18 runners, and stole seven bases. During the streak, Gold helped Endicott to the 2014 CCC Championship with a 4-0 record through the conference tournament and midway through the New England regional in which he was named to the All-Tournament Team as the Gulls finished the season ranked second in New England.

Second baseman, Harry Oringer was named Second Team All-America by D3Baseball.com.

Oringer played in all 50 games for the Blue and Green this season and set career-highs in nearly all statistical categories en route to D3Baseball.com All-America Second Team honors at second base. The junior amassed a .383/.470/.576 slash line with 47 runs, 36 RBI, 11 stolen bases, and a .976 fielding percentage in his third season. Of his career-high 70 hits, 21 went for extra bases with 16 doubles, three triples, and two homeruns as he sat just behind Gold with 98 total bases. Oringer has already collected D3Baseball.com First Team and NEIBA Second Team All-New England recognized to go along with his second straight spot on the All-CCC First Team.

Oringer played some of his best baseball in non-conference games this season, batting .357 with 35 runs and 28 RBI including marquee performances against the New England regional winner Southern Maine. Back on March 28^th, in a 16-7 Endicott win over then-ranked #5 Southern Maine, Oringer went 3-for-5 with five RBI and three runs scored. In Endicott's penultimate game of the season, a 7-6 win over the Huskies to hand the reigning national runner-up their first loss in the regional tournament, Oringer had two hits including a clutch three-run homerun early in the game to give Endicott a 3-2 lead.

Gold and Oringer are both first-time All-America winners and are the third and fourth members of the Endicott baseball program to receive the national recognition. In 2013, Tyler Hitchcock '13 (Abington, Mass.) was placed on the D3Baseball.com All-America Third Team while Brett Holmgren '14 (Middleboro, Mass.) was named to the ABCA/Rawlings NCAA Division III All-America Gold Glove Team at first base.