Big weekends for ex-Bulldogs net awards, trip

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Big weekends for ex-Bulldogs net awards, trip

Dave Rogers’ column for Thursday, May 31

The Port Arthur News

Add a few more bullet points to the long list of accomplishments for Mid-County baseball players.

Dustin Hood and Brock Lemire, the left side of the Nederland High infield in 2005, had big weekends for their respective college teams last week.

Lemire was named NJCAA Division III player of the year by the American Baseball Coaches Association Tuesday.

That followed the sophomore third baseman’s selection last week as a juco All-American and being named most valuable player of last weekend’s Division III World Series.

Lemire entered the World Series hitting .439 with 10 home runs and 60 RBIs. He went 10 for 19 (.526) in five games at the national tournament to lead his Tyler Junior College Apaches to the title. He was 3-for-4 with an RBI and three runs scored in Tyler’s 13-5 win over Joliet, Ill., in the championship game.

Meanwhile, Hood, who also quarterbacked the Bulldogs deep into the football playoffs his senior season, earned all-tournament honors in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament.

The sophomore shortstop’s 6-for-16 performance at the plate in four games helped lift Wake Forest’s Demon Deacons from the last seed in the eight-team ACC tourney to a runnerup finish behind North Carolina.

That earned the Winston-Salem, N.C., school its first NCAA tournament bid since 2002 and will bring Hood back to Texas this weekend. The Deacons, 33-27, will play in the Round Rock regional beginning Friday at 1 p.m. against UC-Irvine, 40-15.

“It’s going to be really, really exciting,†Hood said about playing in Texas. “It’s usually just my parents who will come up to a game every once in a while because it’s such a long drive. Being just four hours from home is really exciting. There will be a lot of family and friends there.â€

It isn’t lost on Hood that the host team in the regional is the University of Texas.

“I’ve grown up a Texas Longhorn fan my whole life,†he said. “Now maybe getting the chance to play against them will be a good experience.â€

  The Longhorns, 44-15, ranked fifth in the latest Baseball America Top 25 poll and UC Irvine No. 9.

“Everybody’s excited about the opportunity we have,†said Hood, who is hitting .289 with a team-leading 71 hits and 40 RBIs. “We’re playing two top 10 teams, but it’s nothing different for these guys. Our conference sent four teams to the World Series last year.

“We just took down Clemson and Miami and both of them were in the World Series last year. I don’t think facing Texas will be anything new for us. We’ve faced the best teams in the country all year.â€

Hood and his teammates opened the ACC tournament with an 11-2 loss to Florida State, then came back to beat No. 18 Clemson 3-2 and Miami 7-3 to win their four-team pool. They lost to No. 3 North Carolina 3-2 in Sunday’s championship game, but still earned the school’s first postseason berth in five years.