After posting the best regular season in six years, Radford University baseball student-athletes Hunter Keen (First Team), Breckin Nace (Second Team and All-Academic), James Ward (Honorable Mention) and Eli Hudgins (All-Freshman) were all honored as the Big South announced its 2025 annual award winners on Tuesday.
For the first time since 2021, Radford picked up a First Team All-Conference honor as Keen earned the nod after a standout 2025 campaign. One of the best defenders in the Big South, Keen posted a .316 batting average to go with 71 hits, 41 RBI, 15 doubles, three triples, 46 runs scored and six stolen bases.
The senior from Palatka, Florida finished the regular season ranked tied for fourth in the conference in triples and tied for sixth in hits. He also tied for 108th in all of NCAA Division I baseball in three-baggers. Keen recorded the most assists in the Big South this season (153) to go with turning the second-most double plays (36). He also chipped in 81 putouts as arguably the best defender in the Big South.
Nace followed up his 2024 All-Freshman selection with an even better 2025 campaign as he became one of the best two-way student-athletes in all of college baseball. At the dish, Nace hit .371 to go with 65 hits, five homers, 40 RBI, 11 doubles, three triples, 52 runs scored and six steals. He got on-base at an eye-popping .484 clip and slugged .554.
The Forest, Virginia native is ranked tied for fourth in the Big South in triples, fifth in batting average and sixth in on-base percentage. On a national level, Nace finished 76th in batting average, 80th in on-base percentage, tied for 108th in triples and 134th in runs per game (1.08).
To go with his standout season at the plate, Nace also went 2-2 on the mound to go along with 31 punch outs over 40.0 innings of work. Opponents batted just .261 against him on the year, a mark that ranks fourth in the conference. Nace was also named to the Big South All-Academic team after he posted a 3.65 cumulative GPA in the classroom to go with his outstanding work on the diamond.
Ward, a newcomer to the squad in 2025, will end his year with one of the best offensive seasons in school history. The Queensbury, New York native raked to a .347 batting average to go with 70 hits, 11 home runs, 55 RBI, 18 doubles, one triple, 49 runs scored and six stolen bases. He also posted a .441 on-base and .609 slugging percentage.
Ward finished the regular season tied for fifth in the Big South in doubles, tied for sixth in sacrifice flies (five), eighth in hits, tied for eighth in hit by pitches (17), tied for ninth in RBI, tenth in batting average and on-base plus slugging percentage (1.058) and 11th in homers. He was also ranked 73rd in the country in doubles, 76th in hit by pitch, 98th in sacrifice flies, 115th in hit by pitches per game (0.34), 117th in doubles per contest (0.34), 205th in slugging percentage and 236th in batting average.
Hudgins picked up a nod to the All-Freshman Team after he posed a standout year in his first season of collegiate baseball. One wouldn’t know Hudgins is just a freshman as he recorded a .317 batting average to go with 52 hits, three dingers, 35 runs batted in, 15 doubles, 32 runs scored and 18 stolen bases in 45 games overall.
The Powdersville, South Carolina native finished his first regular-season campaign ranked in a tie for sixth in the conference in steals. Hudgins was also slotted in at 124th in the nation in doubles per game (0.33) and 131st in stolen bases per contest (0.40). He was nearly perfect in the field with 61 putouts and eight assists from the outfield. He made just a single error to finish with a .986 fielding percentage.
