UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. – Saginaw Valley State University baseball senior Hayden Jatczak earned more recognition being named the Division II Position Player of the Year by the American Baseball Coaches Association and Rawlings Sporting Goods (ABCA/Rawlings).
The ABCA/Rawlings Position Players of the Year are selected by ABCA coaches committees from nine divisions of amateur baseball: NCAA Div. I, II & III, NAIA, NJCAA Div. I, II & III, Pacific Association Division, and high school. ABCA/Rawlings First-Team All-America selections were eligible for Position Player of the Year honors.
Jatczak was named the DII Baseball Insider Player of the Year along with earning three First Team All-America honors and being named Midwest Region Player of the Year by the same three organizations, the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA), the Division II Conference Commissioners Association (D2CCA), and ABCA/Rawlings.
The Bay City native put up a career year in 2024 to break multiple single season records and climb the leaderboards for SVSU baseball career records. He set the single season record for batting average, hits, doubles, home runs, runs scored, and runs batted in while finishing first in career batting average while being in the top ten for hits, runs, doubles, triples, home runs, and runs batted in. After the season concluded in the Midwest Super Regional for the Cardinals, Jatczak ranked in the top five in all of NCAA DII in several categories including batting average, hits, hits per game, doubles, runs, runs per game and total bases.
The ABCA/Rawlings Award Program is one of the most comprehensive in all of sports, honoring Players of the Year, All-America teams and Gold Glove teams in nine divisions of amateur baseball, as well as All-Region teams in five divisions. Founded in 1945, the American Baseball Coaches Association is the primary professional organization for baseball coaches at the amateur level. Its over 15,000 members represent all 50 states and 41 countries. Since its initial meeting of 27 college baseball coaches in June 1945, Association membership has broadened to include nine divisions: NCAA Division I, II and III, NAIA, NJCAA, Pacific Association Division, High School, Youth and Travel.