MARSHALL, Minn. – Point Loma baseball's Baxter Halligan and Zachary Veen became the first two Sea Lions to be named to the Division II Conference Commissioners Association (D2CCA) Baseball All-American team with Halligan being named to the first team as a utility pitcher on Wednesday. Halligan and Cole Hillier were also named first-team All-Americans by the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) and second-team All-Americans by the National College Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA). 
 
On the ABCA All-West Region team, Halligan was selected as West Region Pitcher of the Year. He was joined on the First Team All-West Region by Hillier and Otto Kemp, while Veen earned second-team honors.
 
Halligan has now been named the PacWest Player and Pitcher of the Year, ABCA West Region Pitcher of the Year and the top utility pitcher in the nation by the D2CCA and ABCA. The utility pitcher position is for players who have played both in the field and on the mound during the season.
 
On the mound, Halligan broke PacWest records with 12 wins and 111 strikeouts, while maintaining a 2.25 ERA. In games that Halligan has started this season, the Sea Lions are outscoring opponents 117-34. At the plate, he has a .345 batting average with nine home runs and 44 RBIs in 55 games played. Point Loma started the season on a 10-game winning streak during which Halligan had a 3-0 record with 26 strikeouts in 18 innings and a 0.00 ERA, while also batting .514 with four home runs and 14 RBIs.
 
Veen had a 0.92 ERA at the end of the regular season and has struck out 57 batters in 45.2 innings pitched. He also has a 5-0 record with six saves this season. He recorded a three-inning save against Fresno Pacific to help Point Loma win its first PacWest title and then got another three-inning save in his next outing to start the NCAA West Regional with a win over Cal Poly Pomona.
 
Kemp broke the PacWest record for runs scored in a season with 71 as the Sea Lions' leadoff hitter. Kemp leads Point Loma in several offensive categories with 16 home runs and 58 RBIs. He also has a 1.133 OPS with a .352 batting average. Kemp recorded multiple hits in four of the six games in the NCAA West Regional as he helped Point Loma break the PacWest record for wins in a single season.
 
Hillier also had a record-breaking season, setting a new PacWest record for saves in a season with 15. He didn't blow a save opportunity all season and finished the regular season with a 1.37 ERA. From April 23 to May 27, he made seven appearances and earned the save in all seven outings without a single run allowed. During that time, he had a streak of 12.2 innings pitched with no runs and gave up only three hits in those nine wins for the Sea Lions.
 
Point Loma is the first active PacWest team to have qualified for the NCAA National Championships, which will begin at 3 p.m. (Pacific) on Saturday with the No. 2-seeded Sea Lions taking on No. 7 Illinois Springfield in Cary, N.C.