Warhawk second baseman, Caleb Clowers, is no stranger to flashing the leather, but this season he gets to show off some gold too.

Clowers was named pre-season All Sun Belt Conference team at second base this year and won the Rawlings Gold Glove Award.

The gold glove honor recognizes the top fielder in each position, and only nine players receive the award each year.

“It felt good,” Clowers said. “My hard work paid off. I’ve always been a good defensive player. It was just a big honor. I didn’t know it could really happen.”

Clowers finished just one percentage point behind Connecticut first baseman Mike Nemeth for the top fielding percentage of all position players and successfully fielded .996 last season.

He committed only a single error after which he played to perfection for the final 34 games.

Clowers’ success at second base can be attributed to his preparation on the field in practice.

He fields at least 150 balls a day, which helps him to be accurate in the field, and provides leadership for his team.

Head coach Jeff Schexnaider said, “He’s always been an extremely hard worker and last year he really spent a lot of time working on his defense, and it’s paid off.”

He said, “He’s a guy that’s never satisfied and he’s very humble. He’s a senior now and a good leader for our ball club.”

Although he only made one mistake in the infield last season, Clowers still cannot forget the one error that kept him from perfection.

Reflecting on the moment from last season, Caleb said, “The ball hit me in the face so it shouldn’t have been called an error to me, but usually I get pretty upset when I make that error.”

He said, “It’s tough because it affects the whole team. It doesn’t just affect me.”

Caleb will have a chance to make up for the error he made last year. He has not had an error through the first ten games this season, and that helps to take pressure off his teammates as well.

Pitcher Randy Ziegler said, “Whenever they hit the ball that way you know they’re out.”

He said, “It’s pretty good to have confidence in somebody like that.”