PJC baseball, softball players earn honors

Published or Revised May 28, 2015

Three softball players at Paris Junior College received honors at the end of the season. Named to the NJCAA Region XIV All-Region Second Team were sophomores Alex Cruz and Natalia Ybarra. Both Cruz and Ybarra were also named to the Region XIV East Zone All-Conference First Team: Cruz for infield and Ybarra for outfield. Second Team All-Conference honors went to freshman Sierra Valdez for infield. Four Paris Junior College baseball players were named to the NJCAA Region XIV East All-Conference baseball team. The four include Logan Sepanek, a graduate of Flower Mound Marcus High School; Garrett Moon of Rockwall High School, Garrett Dodd of McKinney HS, and Nathan Hickey of Granbury High School. Sepanek and Dodd were also named to the NJCAA Region XIV All-Region baseball team. Outfielder Sepanek was named All-Conference Player of the Year. “Logan has matured in major ways as a player and student at PJC,” said PJC Athletic Director and Baseball Coach Deron Clark. “His offensive output was almost double from his freshman year. The most impressive stat has to be his 11 homeruns attached to an above .400 average. Those are both major milestones statistically at the NJCAA level.” Moon was named All Conference First Team Catcher. “Garrett [Moon]’s development and productivity for the team this season was exceptional,” said Clark. “He provided power as well as an average at the plate and then to catch all but four games this season is a credit to his conditioning and competitive spirit.” Nathan Hickey, a freshman, was named All Conference First Team Pitcher. “Nathan was a solid stable force in our rotation this spring that gave our team the confidence and motivation to win the games he pitched,” said Clark. “His maturity and development were accelerated with the increased responsibility placed on his shoulders to be our best pitcher each week.” Garrett Dodd was named First Team Designated Hitter. “Garret [Dodd] provided our team with a diverse skill of defensively playing middle infield as well as third and first base,” said Clark. “These transitions are difficult at best, but for Garrett to make that move on a game-to-game basis and then provide our team with the offensive output he did, is a tremendous accomplishment and credit to his athletic ability.”