Baseball | 5/24/2010 1:50:22 PM

ROCHESTER, NY - Senior Geoff Dornes (Landsville, PA/Hempfield) of the RIT baseball team earned 2010 Empire 8 Player of the Year honors on Monday for the third time in four seasons.  Dornes, who was named the Empire 8 Rookie of the Year in 2007, was also the Player of the Year in both 2007 and 2008.  Seven Tigers earned All-Empire 8 honors, including senior outfielder Ryan Campbell (Brockport, NY/Brockport) and junior second baseman Justin Smith (Livonia, NY/Livonia) who also earned first team accolades.  

Dornes, who also earned 2010 ABCA/Rawlings All-New York Region third team honors earlier in the day, enjoyed an excellent senior season for the Tigers, shuttling between right field. first base, and the pitchers mound.  In 2010, Dornes played in all 38 games, hitting .333 with two homers, 32 RBI, 27 walks, and eight stolen bases  He also recorded 42 hits, scored 30 runs, ripped seven doubles, and five triples.  Dornes was excellent on the mound, going 4-4 with a sparkling 2.48 earned run average, five complete games, one save, one shutout and 48 strikeouts in 58 innings.  He was a 2010 All-Empire 8 first team selection as a utility player, and second team selection as a pitcher.  Dornes is the first RIT player to earn All-Empire 8 first team honors in all four seasons of play.

Dornes completed his collegiate career as RIT's all-time leader in hits (199), runs scored (138), at-bats (518), triples (14), runs batted in (111), and walks (75), while in the top-10 in batting average (.384), slugging percentage (.539), on-base percentage (.469), and doubles (31). He will go down as RIT's best player in the history of the program. He also recorded a strong 2.99 earned run average on the mound with 13 wins, 12 complete games, three shutouts and 127 strikeouts in 195 1/3 innings.

Campbell who earned ABCA/Rawlings All-New York Region Gold Glove honors earlier on Monday, enjoyed a breakout season for the Tigers.  In the field, Campbell played 34 error-free games, mostly in right and left field, with 45 putouts and three assists.  At the plate, Campbell led the Tigers with a .383 batting average to go along with 41 hits, 28 runs scored, 15 RBI, 13 walks, five doubles, and five stolen bases.

Smith, a second team Empire 8 selection in 2009, enjoyed a great season for the Tigers in 2010, having played in and started all 38 games at second base, while serving as the lead-off hitter. He hit .331 with team-best totals of 49 hits, 41 runs scored, and 16 stolen bases in just 19 attempts. In addition, Smith hit his first two collegiate home runs and drove in 18 runs batted in to go along with five doubles and two triples.  Smith is third all-time at RIT with 42 career stolen bases, needing just three steals to break the school record.

Junior shortstop Ed Hughes (Jamesville, NY/Jamesville-Dewitt) was named to the Empire 8 second team after setting a Tiger single-season record for assists in a season with 116, while hitting .338 with team-best totals of 66 total bases, eight doubles, and three home runs, while driving in 23 runs, and recording a .496 slugging percentage.  Hughes was also an All-Empire 8 second team selection in 2008, and earned honorable mention accolades in 2009.

Junior catcher Dave Kernan (North Syracuse, NY/Cicero-North Syracuse) and senior pitcher Cory Langtry (Moravia, NY/Moravia) garnered honorable mention accolades.  Kernan tied for the team lead with three homers, while driving in 30 runs, second most on the squad.  He was also an All-Empire 8 second team selection at designated hitter in 2009. 

Langtry, who garnered All-Empire 8 accolades for the fourth straight season, went 2-2 with two complete games in 42 innings this season.  He concluded his collegiate career with a complete-game six-hitter in an 8-2 victory over Ithaca on May 9.  Langtry was an All-Empire 8 first team selection as a reliever in 2007, then concluded his career with three straight honorable mention selections as a starter.

One member of each team was named that institution's representative on the 2010 Baseball Sportsman of the Year Team. Empire 8 emphasizes that "Competing with Honor and Integrity" is an essential component of a student-athlete's experience in conjunction with an institution's educational mission. These honorees have distinguished themselves and consistently exhibit the critical traits as outstanding sportsmen. Senior Kyle Desrosiers (North Attleboro, MA/Xaverian Brothers) was RIT's representative, bouncing between first base, third base, and the pitcher's mound.  Desrosiers hit .274, and was 2-0 on the mound for RIT in 2010.

The Tigers finished the 2010 season with an 18-20 record.