LINCOLN -- Lincoln senior Ian Jackson recently signed a national letter of intent to play men's college baseball for Lyon College, a private residential liberal arts college affiliated with the Presbyterian Church located in Batesville.
Lyon College was founded in 1872, and is the oldest independent college in Arkansas. According to its website, Lyon College seeks to forge champions of character, both on and off the field.
Lyon College competes as part of the American Midwest Conference and Sooner Athletic Conference in NAIA athletics.
The 2019 Lyon College baseball team finished the season with an overall record of 40-22, highlighted by a third consecutive trip to the NAIA Baseball National Championship opening round. The Scots ended their 2019 season ranked No. 22 in the NAIA baseball coaches' postseason Top 25 poll.
The Scots went 2-2 in the Williamsburg Bracket of the opening round hosted by the University of the Cumberlands in Williamsburg, Ky. The 2019 Scots tied the 2015 team for the deepest run in the opening round in program history.
The program is expected to have continued success. Lyon earned 179 points as one of two American Midwest Conference teams appearing in the NAIA preseason Top 25 poll in the first week of November. Lyon's baseball team emerged at No. 21 in the NAIA baseball preseason Top 25 Poll released by the national office on Wednesday, Nov. 6.
Lyon head baseball coach, Tony Roepcke, who has been at the helm 10 years, enters the 2020 season with an overall record of 288-198. He has led the Scots to an NAIA postseason berth four of the last six years and a winning conference record for seven straight years.
The current roster for Lyon College baseball shows the bulk of the team is made up of 24 players from Arkansas and 18 from Texas.
Jackson is a left-handed pitcher who achieved a 4-1 record with a 3.22 ERA last spring as a junior. He also provided offense as lead-off batter hitting .292 and stealing 14 bases in 31 games. Jackson carries a 3.9 grade point average and said one of the things he liked about Lyon is that's it's a school with good academics and academics come first in his priorities.
From Jackson's perspective, the baseball team at Lyon is more like a family, and he feels the coaches really do try to get to know the players.
Sports on 11/20/2019