Brandon Gomez
The No. 6 Nova Southeastern University baseball team (35-15, 18-6 SSC) has placed three student-athletes on the NCBWA and D2CCA All-South Region First Team, as Alex Mateo, Devin Raftery and Brandon Gomez earn their second postseason awards in as many days. Mateo was named First Team starting pitcher, Raftery First Team relief pitcher and Gomez First Team designated hitter.
Mateo went 7-4 this year, putting together a lower ERA than he did as a junior with a 3.18 ERA. Mateo struck out 80 batters in 87.2 innings pitched. In just two years as a Shark, Mateo has 173 career strikeouts and ranks third in the Sharks’ NCAA era. Mateo was one of two pitchers in the SSC to have an ERA lower than 3.00 against conference opponents, the other being his teammate Julian Loret de Mola.
Raftery earns his second postseason award, and it likely won’t be his last, as he has put together a remarkably dominant season. Raftery has 11 saves and 66 strikeouts in 38.1 innings pitched. Raftery comes into the regional with the lowest single-season ERA in program history with a 1.17. Raftery’s best performance came on the final week of the regular season when he struck out 11 hitters in four innings, setting the program record for strikeouts in relief. Raftery has recorded a strikeout in 41 consecutive relief appearances dating back to last year.
Lastly, Brandon Gomez Gomez has led the Sharks to a program record of 75 single-season home runs, hitting 19 of his own to place him second in program history in single-season home runs. The junior is second in the Sunshine State conference in home runs and second in RBI with 68. Gomez leads the team in runs (49), hits (68), doubles (13), triples (3), home runs, RBI, total bases (144) and slugging percentage (.731).