More, More, More All-Region honors for FMU baseball

Three members of the Francis Marion University baseball team – senior catcher Jared Barkdoll, junior shortstop Barrett Kleinknecht, and junior right-handed relief pitcher Brandon Forshee – have been named to the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) All-Southeast Region Team. It is the third regional award of the summer for both Barkdoll and Kleinknecht.
All three FMU players were selected to the 16-player second team.

Barkdoll batted .386 with 35 runs scored, 14 doubles, three home runs, and 41 runs batted in, despite missing 10 games with an injury. The Greencastle, Pa., native compiled a .456 on-base percentage and a .992 fielding percentage – only two errors and two passed balls in 44 games – while throwing out 12 of 38 runners attempting to steal. He recorded 23 multi-hit games and 13 multi-RBI games.

He finished his career owning the school’s all-time records for RBIs (162) and total bases (364), while tying the all-time mark for doubles (50) and ranking second in base hits (258).

Kleinknecht, a hometown product from Florence, batted .372 this past season with 50 runs scored and team-leading totals of 16 doubles, nine homers, and 64 RBIs. His RBI total was two shy of the team record. He had a pair of 12-game hitting streaks, 27 multi-hit games, and 17 multi-RBI games. In the field, he committed only 11 errors in 256 chances and contributed to 28 double plays.

He also made 15 appearances on the mound, where he posted a 1-3 mark with a team-leading six saves and a 3.41 earned run average.

Forshee, a native of Jacksonville, Fla., led the Patriot pitching staff with 29 appearances (all in relief), while compiling a 5-2 record with four saves and a 2.08 ERA. Of the 33 base runners he inherited this season, only nine eventually came around to score. He recorded 47 strikeouts in 56.1 innings of work, and opponents batted only .173 against him.

The three players helped Francis Marion to the second-highest win total in team history: a 38-15-1 record. The Patriots finished second during the Peach Belt Conference regular season, won the Peach Belt Tournament title, and earned their fourth NCAA Division II national tournament bid in the past seven years, placing third at the Southeast Regional. The Patriots ended the year ranked 14th in the final Collegiate Baseball Magazine NCAA Division II Top 30 poll.