Baseball | 5/7/2009 4:17:30 PM

MONMOUTH, Ore. - The Western Oregon University athletic department will honor the 2009 Marquis Spas Athletes of the Year for spring along with the overall male and female athletes of the year Saturday May 16 at the Wolfpack Auction. The event will be held at the Salem Conference Center with doors opening at 5:00 p.m.

The awards were selected by the coaching staffs of each sport. Each student-athlete's name will be placed on a perpetual plaque that will be on display in the PE Building. Marquis Spas has sponsored an Athlete of the Year for each of Western Oregon's 13 intercollegiate athletic teams and another for both the overall male and female athletes of the year.

This year's spring winners include Blake Keitzman for baseball, Tyler Sutherland for softball while Zeb Udell earned the men's track and field selection and Mandy Keifer the women's.

Blake Keitzman is the Marquis Spas Athlete of the Year for baseball. The left-handed pitcher from Roseburg has cruised to a 7-0 record and a 2.28 ERA thus far, helping to lead the Wolves to their eighth consecutive GNAC title. Keitzman is likely to be named the GNAC Pitcher of the Year when the award is announced next week and is a strong candidate for region pitcher of the year honors. The junior has given up only 57 hits in 71 innings pitched and has fanned 75 batters. Opponents are hitting just .219 against him and he has given up only one home run the entire season.

Tyler Sutherland is the Marquis Spas winner for softball. Sutherland was named the GNAC Player of the Year, leading the conference in seven statistical categories including batting average (.420), runs scored (47), doubles (22) and stolen bases (17). The runs scored and doubles totals are also WOU school records, as was her on-base percentage of .503 and slugging percentage of .760. The junior's nine home runs would have tied another school record if not for her teammate Jessica Hallmark's total of 10 this year. She also led Division II with .48 doubles per game. In addition, Sutherland had only five errors in 151 chances at her shortstop position for an outstanding fielding percentage of .967.

Zeb Udell earned his third straight Marquis Spas Track and Field Male Athlete of the Year award and fourth overall when he was named WOU's outdoor winner. He also won the indoor award a few months earlier, helping to lead the men's team to the GNAC indoor championship with 19 points at the conference meet. He won the long jump with a meet-record leap of 23-0.75 and finished second in the pole vault…Outdoors, he broke his own school record in the pole vault with a clearing of 16-6.75, an NCAA automatic qualifying standard for the upcoming national championships. He also won his third consecutive GNAC decathlon title with 6,286 points.

Mandy Keifer is the Marquis Spas winner for outdoor track and field this year. The sophomore from North Salem High School won the GNAC heptathlon championship with a point total of 4,588, sixth all-time at Western Oregon. That is also a provisional mark for entry into the NCAA Championships. Keifer also ranked in the GNAC top 10 in six events heading into the conference championships, which were cancelled.