A&M-Victoria's Jones, Zeplin named NAIA All-Americans

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Texas A&M University-Victoria's Blane Zeplin and Jonathan Jones further cemented their legacy with the baseball program.

On Tuesday, the Jaguars' top two starting pitchers this season earn NAIA All-American Honors. The two were named to the NAIA All-American Third Team, becoming the first baseball All-Americans at A&M-Victoria since Andrew Gross in 2016.

The right-handers helped the Jaguars (36-17) claim their first-ever Red River Athletic Conference regular season championship and sixth appearance in the NAIA Baseball Tournament. This marked the third consecutive 30-win season, tying the longest such stretch in program history from 2009-2011.

The two are the fifth and sixth All-Americans produced by the program and just the second and third pitchers to earn the honor. The previous was Ray Maldonado in 2009.

Jones capped off a historic career with the Jaguars by posting a team-leading 2.98 ERA with 101 strikeouts over 105.2 innings of work this season. He finished the season second nationally in wins with 12, which also set a single-season record for the Jaguars.

The Manvel native closes his collegiate career second all-time at A&M-Victoria in strikeouts (214), fourth in wins (21) and starts (33), and ninth in ERA (3.56).

Zeplin made the most of his lone year with the Jaguars.

The Victoria native posted a single-season record 115 strikeouts with a 3.03 ERA and 1.30 WHIP over 92.0 innings of work this year to post a 10-2 record on the mound. He finished fifth nationally in strikeouts. His 10-win season, along with Jones', marked the first time A&M-Victoria had two pitchers in the same season eclipse the 10-win plateau. The 6-foot-4 righty had six games with 10 or more strikeouts.

Zeplin is currently playing in the independent ranks of professional baseball with the Joliet Slammers of the Frontier League, an MLB Partner league.