The La Crosse Loggers Baseball Club announced today that a pair of pitchers from their 2010 squad, Michael Schum (Wright State) and Alex Najera (Pepperdine), will return to La Crosse next season.

Schum was the Loggers go-to guy out of the bullpen this past season having led the team in appearances (24) while posting a 3-2 record with a 2.91 ERA. The Wright State junior also limited opponents to a .260 batting average while striking out 28 and only walking nine batters in 43.1 innings pitched.

The 6-2, 175 pound Lawrenceburg, Ind. native has served as the closer for the Wright State Raiders in each of his first two seasons of college baseball. Most notably, Schum had a record-setting freshman season in 2009 when he earned Collegiate Baseball Freshman All-American honors as well as being named the Horizon League Relief Pitcher of the Year. During that freshman campaign, Schum set a school record with 34 appearances along with posting 13 saves and a miniscule 1.95 ERA over 74 innings pitched out of the bullpen.

Sophomore Alex Najera will be looking to build upon a very successful start to his summer ball career that was cut short by injury in early July. The highly touted Pepperdine lefty was off to a fantastic start this past summer having posted a pair of saves and a 2.21 ERA over seven appearances for the Loggers, including 17 strikeouts in 16.1 innings pitched and holding opponents to a .169 batting average.

Najera was a four-year letter winner at Canyon High School in Anaheim, California where he was named to the All-Century League team and received the school’s Comanche Award following his senior year where he posted an earned run average under 1.00 and hit .325.