Yellowjackets Sign JC Standout (Aug. 5, 2005)

BILLINGS, MT – Montana State-Billings head baseball coach Chris Brown announced Friday that Nick Hoskyn of Hazleton, IA has signed a national letter of intent to play for the Yellowjackets this season.  Hoskyn is a 2003 graduate of Oelwein High School and played two seasons at North Iowa Area Community College.

“The addition of Nick really solidifies our team defensively and our lineup offensively,” said Brown.  “He comes to us from a successful program and has done extremely well there the last two years.  Nick is a very talented all-around athlete that has the ability to play pretty much anywhere.  He has a strong arm, runs very well, drives the ball gap to gap, and has the ability to cover a lot of ground defensively.  We expect him to be a major impact guy on and off the field.”

Hoskyn was listed as a third baseman at NIACC, where he was named the school’s Male Student-Athlete of the Year as a sophomore last season.  The 6-foot-2, 200-pound infielder helped lead the Trojans to a 38-13 record and the 2005 conference championship.  Last season he batted .396 with 39 RBI, 24 doubles, and 17 stolen bases.  Hoskyn earned First Team All-Region NJCAA honors and was named conference player of the week two times.  He was also named to the NJCAA Academic All-Region Second Team.

At Oelwein High School, Hoskyn lettered three times in baseball, three times in golf, twice in basketball, and once in football.  He earned first team all-conference honors as a senior pitcher/infielder.  He was also named to the first team all-district and first team all-state teams after batting .500 with 53 RBI.

“I liked the atmosphere that the people presented when I visited Montana State-Billings,” said Hoskyn of selecting MSU Billings.  “Everything I heard about the coaching staff was good, and the campus was very nice.”