Johnny Blake earns Pride baseball's First All-America honor since 2017

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Following the conclusion of the NAIA World Series last weekend, the national office announced the 2023 baseball All-America honorees as Clarke University's Johnny Blake received honorable mention status.

Blake, a junior right-handed pitcher/infielder, received the honor for his work on the mound for the Pride after being named a Heart of America Athletic Conference All-Conference First Team selection touting the nation's second-lowest earned run average by the season's end.

That ERA finished at 1.75 over 72.0 innings while striking out 80 batters for a 10.00 K/9 average and a 0.98 WHIP (walks plus hits per inning's pitched) to finish with a 6-3 record and a save over 11 starts and one relief appearance.

The Dubuque native finished the season with four complete games, including three shutouts that came in Heart play as his last two starts of the regular season came in shutout fashion and his start in the Heart Tournament ending his season on an eight-inning complete game where he gave up two runs on six hits while striking out six batters and walking none.

Though his batting stats were not taken into consideration for his All-America Honorable Mention selection, Blake finished with a .262/.341/.383 slash line at the plate over 41 games and 107 at bats as either a first baseman, DH, or hitting for himself while pitching.

With this selection, Clarke baseball receives their third ever NAIA All-America honoree as Blake joins Michael Lopez and Andrew Redman who also received honorable mention status in 2017 and 2015 respectively.

Blake will headline a group of returning Pride baseball players that will look to improve on their 29-18 record in 2023 where they finished 21-10 in the Heart, winning the North Division for the second-straight season.