Former Tigers rack up postseason baseball honors

Former Tigers (from L-R) William Salas, Ty Russell, and Bennett Mann have earned postseason honors.
(Photo Credit: Graceland Athletic Communications, Alabama A&M SID Office)
Former Tigers (from L-R) William Salas, Ty Russell, and Bennett Mann have earned postseason honors. (Photo Credit: Graceland Athletic Communications, Alabama A&M SID Office)

Current members of the Marshalltown Community College Baseball team were not the only Tigers that had a successful 2016 season. Former members of the team had standout seasons at their new institutions to earn postseason accolades.

Bennett Mann, a two-year member at MCC from 2012-14 and a local Marshalltown product, picked up a series of postseason honors for Buena Vista University in his final year as a member of the Beavers. Mann earned ABCA/Rawlings All-Central Region Second-Team and d3baseball.com All-Region Second-Team honors after a standout senior season. Mann also earned Second-Team All-Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference honors as an outfielder. Mann batted .333 on the year and tied for the team lead with 10 home runs. At MCC, Mann hit a team-high 14 home runs during his sophomore season.

Former Tiger William Salas, a middle infielder on the 2012 and 2013 MCC teams, earned the prestigious Rawlings Gold Glove for his work at shortstop for Graceland University. Salas was also named to the Heart of America Athletic Conference First-Team afer leading the Yellowjackets with 52 hits and 27 stolen bases on the year. In his final season at Graceland, Salas posted a stellar .957 fielding percentage on 304 total chances. Salas was a First-Team All-Region XI selection in 2013 at MCC.

Salas is currently playing for the Medicine Hat Mavericks, a member of the Western Major Baseball League in Canada, the pre-eminent summer collegiate baseball league.

Ty Russell played for the Tigers from 2012-14 and moved on to Alabama A&M University. As a senior, Russell earned Second-Team All-Southwestern Athletic Conference honors. Russell batted .288 on the year with seven home runs and 28 runs driven in as the team's primary designated hitter. Russell collected 92 career hits while at MCC while posting a .337 lifetime batting average.