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North Iowa Area Community College shortstop Erik Smith (Pisgah/West Harrison) became the third Trojans baseball All-America player in the past three seasons, earning second-team honors among schools from the National Junior College Athletic Association’s Division II classification.

Smith finished 15th in the nation with a .469 batting average and was tied for 10th in runs batted in with 66. A two-year starter for the Trojans after transferring from the University of Northern Iowa, Smith also had 21 doubles, five triples and 10 homers for head coach Todd Rima’s team.

After hitting over .400 on NIACC’s spring trip to Cocoa, FL, Smith continued his hot hitting with a pair of six-hit games, including a 6-for-7 effort in a victory over eventual NJCAA Division II World Series participant Des Moines Area Community College. He led the Iowa Community College Athletic Conference in hitting during the regular season and went 11-for-16 in the Region XI playoffs with a pair of homers and nine RBI.

Despite nagging back problems, Smith batted .353 with 54 hits and 10 stolen bases as the team’s starting shortstop in 2007 and Rima believed Smith could be an All-Region XI player if we had a completely healthy season. Smith played nearly every game for NIACC in a 36-16 season and now follows Danny Reed (first team in 2006) and Tom Heithoff (third team in 2007) as a NIACC All-America baseball player.

More about NIACC baseball can be found at www.niacc.edu/athletics under the Baseball link.

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