Postseason honors flooded in for the state champion Powell Pioneers, as four players earned All-State honors and four additional players earned All-Conference honors, while pitcher Brock Johnson was named both the Class ‘A’ Pitcher of the Year and Player of the Year.

Top honors

Leading the way for the Pioneers this year was Johnson, who had added pressure this season after he was named the state’s Pitcher of the Year last year.

He added that honor for the second year in a row, but also earned the state’s Player of the Year.

“I just kind of embraced it,” Johnson said. “It’s a mindset, people think you’re the best and it helps you. You just have to go with it and try and act like it, I don’t act like it at times when I should. It’s fun, I don’t play for other people and what they think, I play for other reasons. I just like to have fun so all the outside stuff just doesn’t really matter.”

Johnson had the Pioneers’ third most innings pitched at 72-1/3, boasting a 10-2 record while finishing 3-of-3 in save attempts.

His dominance on the mound this season was to the tune of only giving up 23 hits, with a .094 batting against average.

That led to giving up only eight earned runs, resulting in a .774 ERA, .705 WHIP (walks plus hits per innings pitched) walking only 28 batters the entire season and striking out 134.

At the plate, he added the second highest batting average for the team at .468 and the third best OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging percentage) of 1.177.

He had the most hits on the team with 100, and added seven home runs, 94 runs scored, 42 walks and 47 RBIs while hitting leadoff for the Pioneers.

Adding Player of the Year honor on top of Pitcher of the Year is something that manager Jason Borders isn’t sure has happened since the honors began.

“I don’t know if it’s happened since we started this,” Borders said. “What’s cool about it is I have nothing to do with it … It means he was noticed by other coaches and that says something about him.”

Being the state’s Player of the Year added to the string of recent awards for Powell, who had the ‘A’ West Co-Player of the Year in Trey Stenerson in 2022, while Cade Queen was named the state’s Player of the Year last year.

“That’s three kids in three years, that’s pretty big for this class,” Borders said. “It’s pretty cool especially when they’re on the same team.”

Johnson’s All-State honors this season are the fifth of his career, having been named first team the last four years and second team in 2020.

All-State players

In addition to Johnson the Pioneers had three more players named to the All-State teams, two named to the first team in Stenerson and Queen, and Jhett Schwahn named to the second team.

Queen was one of the top dual-threats for the Pioneers alongside Johnson, leading the team in RBIs along with the most innings pitched this season.

At the plate, Queen had a .438 batting average, 1.278 OPS, .756 SLG (the total number of bases a player records per at-bat), 95 hits, 13 home runs, 88 RBIs, 84 runs scored and 34 walks.

On the mound, he pitched 88-2/3 innings, boasting an 11-1 record and two saves in two attempts.

He gave up 31 earned runs, walked 30 batters and struck out 143 batters, resulting in a 2.447 ERA and a 1.173 WHIP.

“That’s what I just kept figuring out (this year) is how to know you’re the guy,” Queen said. “When everyone else sees that you have a lot of potential and talent and sometimes you don’t, you just gotta let it flow. There was a ton of pressure. One of the things I learned this year is that it takes a team and thankfully I got one of the best teams in the state.”

The honor was Queen’s second straight first team selection and third in a row overall.

The final first team recipient was Stenerson, who led the Pioneers at the plate this season in batting average.

He led with a .468 batting average on 96 hits, adding a 1.23 OPS, .693 SLG, eight home runs — all over the final three weeks — 71 RBIs, 68 runs scored and 31 walks.

He added 37-2/3 innings on the mound, finishing with 30 strikeouts and 34 earned runs given up.

It was his third straight first team honor and fourth total.

The final All-State recipient was Schwahn, who had a .343 batting average, a .948 OPS, .441 SLG to go along with 49 hits, one home run, 39 RBIs, 56 runs scored and 24 walks.

Behind the plate he had the second most innings played for the Pioneers, catching 12 of 44 runners attempting to steal in 176-1/3 innings catching.

“I was kinda sour on Jhett. I felt like he was a first teamer,” Borders said. “There were a lot of kids that made the first team that he was better than.”

It was Schwahn’s third All-State honor, being named first team once in 2023.

All-Conference players

In addition to being named All-State, the Pioneers had four players named to second team All-Conference honors: Jordan Loera, Dalton Worstell, Ethan Welch and Aiden Greenwald.

Greenwald served as one of the Pioneers’ top pitchers, pitching the second most innings at 78-2/3 and recording an 8-2 record with two saves in two attempts.

He walked 17 batters, struck out 68, gave up 32 earned runs and had a 2.847 ERA and a 1.258 WHIP.

Worstell also pitched some of the most innings for Powell, pitching 63 innings, recording a 7-6 record and adding one save in one attempt.

He gave up 36 earned runs, 31 walks and 41 strikeouts while having a 4.0 ERA and a 1.921 WHIP.

At the plate Worstell added a .264 batting average, a .686 OPS, a .293 SLG, 46 hits, 35 RBIs, 32 runs scored and 25 walks.

Another dual threat option for the Pioneers was Loera, who pitched 51 innings, had a 6-2 record, recorded one save in one attempt, gave up 19 earned runs, walked 17 batters, had 37 strikeouts — resulting in a 2.608 ERA and a 1.196 WHIP.

At the plate he was the Pioneers’ only left-handed batter, recording a .295 batting average, .779 OPS, .338 SLG, 41 hits, 19 RBIs, 44 runs and 30 walks.

The final player named All-Conference for Powell was Welch, who had a .233 batting average, .607 OPS, .245 SLG, 38 hits, 23 RBIs, 40 runs scored and 31 walks.

“It was nice having all these guys recognized because they deserved it,” Borders said.