It’s official.
The NCAA has named its statistical leaders for the past season and Jackson County Central graduate Gavin Jacobsen, a sophomore at Bethany Lutheran College, was recognized as the Division III leader for strikeouts per nine innings.
The left-hander struck out an average of 15 batters per nine innings for the Vikings as he had 85 strikeouts in 51 innings.
Jacobsen was a first-team selection on the all-Upper Midwest Athletic Conference team with BLC this spring.
He appeared in 11 games, starting 10 and posted a 1-2 record with a 4.11 earned run average. In 51 innings he allowed 34 runs (25 earned) on 43 hits, walked 24, hit eight and struck out 85.
Jacobsen started the summer with the Jackson Bulls amateur team, but joined St. Cloud of the Northwoods League in early July. He set a Bulls’ record for strikeouts with 18 at Lakefield on June 11 and also recorded 14 at Pipestone on June 25.
Gavin has pitched in three games (starting one) for the Rox and has a 1-1 record. In seven innings he has allowed seven runs on seven hits, walked seven and struck out eight.
St. Cloud is 13-8 in the second half of the season, one game behind 14-7 Willmar in the Great Plains West Division standings. Those teams play tonight (Friday) at Joe Faber Field in St. Cloud.
The Rox host Bismarck Saturday and Sunday before being off for three days for the Northwoods League All-Star break.
Top five
Here are the top five pitchers in strikeouts per nine innings in NCAA Division III. Listed are name, school, strikeouts, innings pitched and average strikeouts per nine innings.
Gavin Jacobsen, Bethany Lutheran College, 51, 85.0, 15.00
Shaun Gamelin, Rhode Island College, 89.0, 143, 14.46
Jack Martinez, Trinity, Tex., 51.0, 81, 14.29
Elden Santana, Lawrence University, 38.0, 60, 14.21
John Gassler, New York University, 59.1, 93, 14.11