Four 2016 Rafters Rewarded for Best Fielding Percentages

Rochester, Minn. – The Northwoods League has announced the recipients of the 2016 Rawlings ‘Finest in the Field’ Award. The annual award recognizes the top fielders at each position. The winners are selected based on final fielding statistics compiled by league statistician Pointstreak.

A season in which many records fell, the Rafters also have a record number players named to the 2016 Rawlings ‘Finest In The Field’ as Ben Fisher, Jake Lumley, Patrick Cromwell and Logan Mattix all earned accolades. Ben Fisher 1B appeared in 68 games during the season, committed only 4 errors in 507 chances, for an impressive .994 fielding percentage. Jake Lumley 2B played in 68 games during the regular season committing just 6 errors for .987 fielding percentage. Patrick Cromwell 3B played 62 games at the hot corner in 2016 committing only 5 errors with a .949 fielding percentage. Logan Mattix OF appeared in 61 games for the Rafters with 0 errors to speak of for a 1.000 fielding percentage.

Fisher, Lumley, Cromwell and Mattix join former Rafters Ryan Cleveland (2015), Zack Domingues (2014), Brandon Hohl (2012) and Josh Cyr (2012) as previous recipients of the award.

The complete list of Rawlings ‘Finest In The Field’ award recipients and their field percentages is below.

Rawlings has been rewarding the top defenders in the Northwoods League since 2002. The recipients receive a special Rawlings engraved trophy. Rawlings is the official equipment provider for the Northwoods League. To qualify for an award a player needs to appear in at least two-thirds of the scheduled games at a specific position, with the exception of catcher which is half. For pitchers, the player that had the highest total defensive chances without committing an error earns the number one spot.

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The Wisconsin Rapids Rafters are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. The 23-year-old summer collegiate league is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 20 teams, drawing significantly more fans, in a friendly ballpark experience, than any league of its kind. A valuable training ground for coaches, umpires and front office staff, more than 160 former Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (WAS) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (CWS), Jordan Zimmermann (DET), Curtis Granderson (NYM), Lucas Duda (NYM) and Ben Zobrist (CHC). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League portal. For more information, visit www.raftersbaseball.com or download the new Northwoods League Mobile App on the Apple App Store or on Google Play and set the Rafters as your favorite team.