• 2026 All-OVC Baseball Teams and Award Winners (PDF)
MARION, Ill. - For the first time since 2017 a pair of players shared the OVC Player of the Year award, with SIUE junior first baseman
Ryan Niedzwiedz and UT Martin senior outfielder
TJ Grines sharing the award which was voted on by league head coaches and communications directors.
Additionally, SIUE's
Sean Lyons was named the OVC Coach of the Year, Eastern Illinois junior
Bryce Riggs was tabbed OVC Pitcher of the Year and Lindenwood second baseman
Will Geary was honored as OVC Freshman of the Year.
The announcement of the 2026 baseball awards is presented by
FieldTurf. The honors, along with first and second-team All-OVC and All-Freshman honors were announced ahead of the 2026 OVC Baseball Championship which begins on Tuesday at Mtn Dew Park in Marion, Illinois.
Regular season champion SIUE had the most first-team selections with four, followed by three from Eastern Illinois and two apiece from Morehead State and Southeast Missouri. The All-OVC first-team included eight seniors, four juniors and three sophomores, while the second-team had one graduate student, four seniors, six juniors, three sophomores and a freshman.
Niedzwiedz became the first SIUE player to earn OVC Player of the Year honors after he led the League and ranked fifth nationally with 27 home runs. The 27 round trippers are tied for the second-most in OVC single-season history. The first baseman also ranked eighth nationally in total bases (171), 10th in slugging (.792) and 20th in RBI (67). In 54 games, he hit .352 with 76 hits, 59 runs and 14 doubles while fielding .993. In 26 OVC contests (leading SIUE to a 19-6 record), Niedzwiedz hit .349 with 13 home runs and 31 RBI.
Grines also became the first player from UT Martin to win the award after leading all NCAA players (all divisions) with 65 stolen baes, which was 22 more than any other Division I player. During the year he set the OVC single-season and single-game (6) records for stolen bases and became the first Division I player with 50 RBI and 50 stolen bases in the same season since 2010. Grines is just four RBI away from becoming only the second player in college baseball history to have a 60/60 campaign. Grines enters the week with 92 hits, the second-most among Division I players (eight away from becoming the eight player in OVC history with 100 hits in a season), and 74 runs, a mark that ranks sixth nationally. His .388 batting average ranks 20th nationally, while his 21 doubles are 10th.
The other times that position players shared the OVC Player of the Year award was in 2008 (Clay Whittemore of Jacksonville State and Michael Marseco of Samford), 2016 (Mandy Alvarez of Eastern Kentucky and Kevin Strohschein of Tennessee Tech) and 2017 (Ben Fisher of Eastern Kentucky and Niko Hulsizer of Morehead State).
Riggs is the second Eastern Illinois individual to be named OVC Pitcher of the Year, joining John Larson in 1999. The righty appeared in 14 games, making 13 starts, compiling a 7-2 record with 3.32 E.R.A. in 84.0 innings. The junior had a save in a high leverage situation at Arkansas State (allowing two hits over four innings) while striking out 75 individuals. Entering the postseason he ranks 10th nationally in hits allowed per nine inning (6.0), 12th in complete games (2) and 40th in WHIP (1.07). Riggs had a complete game one-hitter against Southern Indiana on April 11 and struck out a season-high 11 against Lindenwood on March 21.
Geary is the second-straight Lindenwood infielder to take home the Freshman of the Year honor, joining Charlie Isom-McCall from a season ago. He set the Lindenwood NCAA-era stolen base record this year with 27 (breaking the old mark of 23). That ranks him in the Top 50 nationally entering the postseason. In 55 games he hit .321 with 69 hits, 39 runs, 12 doubles, five triples (19th nationally), three home runs and 26 RBI. Geary had 22 multi-hit games on the season and drove in a season-best four runs against Northern Illinois.
Now in his 10th season as skipper for SIUE, Lyons became the first SIUE head coach to take home Coach of the Year honors. After guiding the Cougars to a second-place finish and highest OVC Tournament seed ever a season ago, the team was picked the preseason favorites entering 2026. Lyons helped the team get off to an 8-0 OVC record on its way to a 19-7 League record as the squad claimed its first OVC regular season championship, doing so by 1.5 games. The 19 OVC wins are tied for the most in program history while the team's 32 overall wins are the most of its Division I era. The Cougars smashed a program record 104 home runs this season, a mark that ranks 10th nationally. The team also ranks 13th nationally in double plays (48), 15th in field percentage (.980) and 20th in slugging (.518).
2026 All-OVC Baseball Teams and Award Winners
OVC Co-Player of the Year: Ryan Niedzwiedz (1B), SIUE
OVC Co-Player of the Year: TJ Grines (OF), UT Martin
OVC Pitcher of the Year: Bryce Riggs (RHP), Eastern Illinois
OVC Freshman of the Year: Will Geary (2B), Lindenwood
OVC Coach of the Year: Sean Lyons, SIUE
ALL-OVC FIRST TEAM
C - Micajah Wall, Southern Indiana
1B - Ryan Niedzwiedz, SIUE
2B - Chris Worcester, Eastern Illinois
SS - Chase Bloomer, SIUE
3B - Mike O'Conor, Eastern Illinois
OF - TJ Grines, UT Martin
OF - Jorsixt Jimenez, Tennessee Tech.
OF - Ian McCubbin, Morehead State
DH - Aubrey Kearns, Morehead State
UT - Joe Hall, Southeast Missouri
SP - Bryce Riggs, Eastern Illinois
SP - Josh Newell, Lindenwood
SP - Tim Teixeira, SIUE
RP - Easton Harris, SIUE
RP - Nathan Mertens, Southeast Missouri
ALL-OVC SECOND TEAM
C - Caden Sheridan, Morehead State
1B - Liam Bushey, Western Illinois
2B - Brooks Kettering, Southeast Missouri
SS - Andrew Ramirez, Southeast Missouri
3B - Nolan Freund, Little Rock
OF - TJ Dunsford, UT Martin
OF - Davis Germann, Morehead State
OF - Kade Smith, Little Rock
DH - Joshua Heyder, SIUE
UT - James Love, Eastern Illinois
SP - Brannon Westmoreland, Little Rock
SP - Seth Benes, Lindenwood
SP - Spencer Stearns, SIUE
RP - James Geshel, Eastern Illinois
RP - Tag Andrews, Little Rock
ALL-FRESHMAN TEAM
RHP - Jarrett Kinder, Eastern Illinois
2B - Will Geary, Lindenwood
LHP - Lucas Niemeyer, Lindenwood
OF - Sam Driscoll, Lindenwood
3B - Owen Ralph, Lindenwood
RHP - Tag Andrews, Little Rock
OF - Kyle Krupp, Morehead State
INF - Nick Griffith, Morehead State
RHP - Connor Davis, Morehead State
C - Tank Sims, Southeast Missouri
LHP - Matt Wnukowski, Southeast Missouri
OF - Cooper Eggert, SIUE
INF - Tyler Bennett, Tennessee Tech