BRENTWOOD, Tenn. – The Lindenwood baseball team has placed six players on this season's OVC All-Conference Teams, which were announced by the league on Tuesday morning. The group is headlined by OVC Freshman of the Year Will Geary and First Team selection Josh Newell.

Newell was named First Team All-Conference for the second consecutive season. The senior posted a 6-5 record with a 2.51 ERA, registering 58 strikeouts through a league-leading 93.1 innings pitched. In conference play, he has the lowest ERA among starting pitchers with a mark of 2.53. He was two-time OVC Pitcher of the Week, winning the award after throwing eight shutout innings against Murray State and then again following a complete-game performance against SEMO. It was his third career complete game, as allowed zero earned runs on just three hits with five strikeouts through nine innings.

Landing on the Second Team was Seth Benes, who led the conference with an ERA of 2.33 while registering a league-leading 75 strikeouts through 85.0 innings pitched. He limited opponents to a batting average of .205, which was the second lowest mark in the conference during the regular season. In five of his last six starts, Benes went at least six innings while allowing two or fewer runs and recording five or more strikeouts. He was named OVC Pitcher of the Week after giving up zero runs on three hits with seven strikeouts through seven shutout innings against St. Thomas on February 21st.

The Lions landed a conference-high four players on the All-Freshman team, including OVC Freshman of the Year Will Geary. Geary, who spent most of the season at second base before making the switch to shortstop, playing in every game for the Lions during the regular season. He led the club in batting average (.321), hits (69), triples (5), slugging percentage (.465) and on-base percentage (.465). He also set a new Lindenwood NCAA era single season record with 27 stolen bases, which is second most in the conference.

Geary is Lindenwood's second consecutive OVC Freshman of the Year winner, joining 2025 Freshman of the Year Charlie Isom-McCall.

Also named All-Freshman was Lucas Niemeyer. A lefty out of Louisville, Kentucky, Niemeyer started 13 games for the Lions this season, recording a 4.38 ERA through 61.2 innings pitched. He registered 30 strikeouts and pitched in three of Lindenwood's five shutouts, including a seven-inning performance in the Lions' 4-0 win over Murray State. He picked up his first career win after tossing five shutout innings with four strikeouts against SEMO on April 4th.

Joining Geary and Niemeyer on the All-Freshman squad were Sam Driscoll and Owen Ralph. Driscoll has made 41 appearances with 36 starts for the Lions this season, batting .274 with four doubles, four triples, four homers, and 20 RBIs. He really turned it on during conference play, batting .329 with 12 RBIs in OVC games. Driscoll was named OVC Player of the Week after batting .800 (8-10) with two doubles, a triple, three homers, five RBIs, and eight runs scored over three games at Morehead State.

Meanwhile, Owen Ralph has made 39 appearances with 25 starts while spending time at both second and third base. He posted a batting average .278 during the regular season with four doubles, one homer, and 17 RBIs. In conference play, Ralph is batting .288 with 10 RBIs. At Southern Indiana this past weekend, he registered eight hits in ten at-bats – including a season-high four hits in the regular season finale – while driving in three runs and scoring another.

Lindenwood opens postseason play this afternoon against UT Martin at the 2026 OVC Baseball Championship. First pitch from Mtn Dew Park in Marion, Illinois is now scheduled for 12:00 p.m. due to the threat of inclement weather later in the day.