| Five UMSL Players Named to All-Region Baseball Team Jim Reiter Named North Central Region Player of the Year St. Louis, Mo. – The honors keep rolling in for the UMSL baseball team, who ended their record-setting season this past weekend at the NCAA Regionals. The Rivermen had five players named to the ABCA/Rawlings All-Region Team, including three first team selections and two more named second team selections. In addition, outfielder Jim Reiter (Troy, Mo./Troy Buchanan) was named the North Central Region Player of the Year. Jim Reiter, who was also named Great Lakes Valley Conference Player of the Year, was named the North Central Region Player of the Year. Reiter led the Rivermen in many offensive categories, including a team-best .388 batting average on the season. He led the team with 58 runs scored on the year and had a team-high 73 hits in 54 games played. Reiter led the team with six triples on the season, a slugging percentage of .564 and an on base percentage of .506, which was helped by his team high 43 walks on the year. He also added 12 doubles, three home runs, 40 RBIs and was 18-for-23 in stolen bases on the season. Reiter was the lone Rivermen to be named to the North Central All-Regional Tournament Team. He becomes the first UMSL player to earn Region Player of the Year honors since 1992 when Brian Rupp was named the Central Region Player of the Year. Bryan Weiss (St. Peters, Mo./Francis Howell North) was also named a first team all-region selection at shortstop. Weiss hit .338 on the year for UMSL, while scoring a team-high 58 runs on the season and had 68 hits on the year. Weiss was second on the team with seven home runs and knocked in 47 RBIs in 54 games. He led the team in total bases with 108 and had a slugging percentage of .537. Weiss also had 15 doubles and two triples on the year and was a perfect 11-for-11 in stolen bases. Greg Bierling (St. Louis, Mo./St. Louis University HS) was the third UMSL player named a first team selection. Bierling finished the year with a 7-1 record, two saves and a 2.67 ERA. He threw 97.2 innings on the year, striking out 88 hitters while walking just 14 on the season. Bierling threw five complete games and had two shutouts on the season, including a near no-hitter at Kentucky Wesleyan where he held the Panthers hitless into the seventh inning. Bierling wrapped up a tremendous career at UMSL that saw him set many school records, including most career wins with 23, most career strikeouts with 244, and most career innings pitched at 299.2. The Rivermen also had two players named second team all-region selections. Jason Barron (St. Louis, Mo./Hazelwood East) was named a second team selection as an outfielder after leading UMSL with nine home runs on the season and was second on the team with 48 RBIs on the year. Barron also tied a school record by hitting three home runs in one game, coming in a win at Bellarmine. He hit .309 on the season, scoring 42 runs with nine doubles and two triples and led the team with 22 stolen bases on the year in 23 attempts. Second baseman Tony Grana (Ballwin, Mo./Lafayette) was also a second team selection after hitting .305 as the leadoff man for the UMSL offense. Grana scored 56 runs on the season, while collecting 61 hits in 53 games played. He was second on the team with 17 doubles, and added two triples, four home runs and 34 RBIs. He finished with an on base percentage of .412 and was 19-for-24 in stolen baseso n the year. The Rivermen finished the season with a 39-15 record, setting a new school record for most wins in a season. UMSL also won the Great Lakes Valley Conference Championship, becoming the first UMSL team in any sport to win the title since the school joined the GLVC. The Rivermen saw their season come to an end after suffering two losses at the NCAA Regionals, the first trip back to the NCAA tournament since the 1998 team.
2003 ABCA/Rawlings North Central All-Region Teams
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