DAHLONEGA – The No. 13 University of North Georgia (UNG) baseball team dominated the 2025 Peach Belt Conference All-Conference awards announced by the league office Thursday afternoon.

With a total of six all-conference selections and three winners of an annual award, UNG's nine conference postseason honorees were the most of any school in the conference this season.

Headlining the PBC First Team All-Conference selections were junior center fielder Andrews Opata and redshirt freshman designated hitter Nicholas Stinson. 

Opata and Stinson each took home annual awards as well. Opata was named the 2025 PBC Player of the Year while Stinson earned the title of 2025 PBC Freshman of the Year.

On the PBC All-Conference Second Team were redshirt junior first baseman Phillip Ard, junior shortstop Jace Bowen, redshirt sophomore starting pitcher Luke Earnhardt and graduate starting pitcher Pierce Williams.

All of these awards culminated in one final individual award for UNG as legendary head coach Tom Cantrell was named the 2025 PBC Coach of the Year in his final season at the helm of North Georgia Baseball.

Cantrell guided the Nighthawks to the best conference record in school history with a 23-4 mark against Peach Belt opponents this season. For the first time in program history, UNG won every single series against conference opponents this year. After starting the year at 3-4 through the first seven games, the Nighthawks rolled to a 33-9 record to end the year and failed to lose consecutive games during the stretch. 

Along the way UNG took down some of the top teams in the country with notable wins over No. 4 Catawba on the road and at home against No. 9 North Greenville. When the schedule was released in advance of the 2025 season, the Nighthawks had 13 games planned against opponents in the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) Preseason top 25. UNG went 8-5 in those games. 

Opata became the third PBC Player of the Year in program history Thursday. The five-tool superstar batted .394 in the regular season with 11 home runs, 59 RBIs and a 1.082 on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS). With 86 hits this season, Opata ranked second in the league and fourth in the nation. His 78 runs scored also led the PBC and currently rank third nationally. The third-year Nighthawk also leads the league in stolen bases (33) and total bases (134). Both marks rank in the top 20 nationally. 

For the Freshman of the Year Stinson, the redshirt transfer from Young Harris made an immediate impact in his first collegiate season in the lineup. As a designated hitter, Stinson was second on the team with a .366 batting average and 67 hits in total. He led the team and ranked third in the PBC with 17 doubles on the year. As one of the more clutch hitters in Cantrell's lineup, Stinson brought in 44 runners this season which was third-most on the team. 

Stinson dominated opposing pitchers consistently this season. He recorded a hit in the first 15 games of the year, marking the second-longest hit streak of any UNG hitter this season. He also had the second most multi-hit games on the team with 22.

He became the first Nighthawk in program history to win the PBC Freshman of the Week award four times in a single season. He's also the first rookie in conference history to win the award four or more times in the same year since 2019.

For the second consecutive year Ard was named to the all-conference Second Team. Last year, Ard was UNG's only all-conference selection. This year he bolstered a plethora of outstanding individuals that led the Nighthawks to the fourth PBC Regular-season title in program history. Ard contributed on offense by mashing 19 home runs in the regular season, which led the league and currently ranks ninth-most in the nation. His big bat also brought in a staggering 79 RBIs on the year, the third-most of any hitter in NCAA Division II and the most in a single season in UNG baseball history. 

Bowen made the first postseason all-conference team in his career Thursday. The fine-fielding shortstop joined his teammates on the Second Team after hitting .366 in 33 games this year. Bowen had 28 RBIs, 59 total bases and stole nine bags during the regular season. 

On the mound it was no surprise that Earnhardt was named to the all-conference Second Team. The Rabun Gap, Ga. native and first-year Nighthawk served as the team's Saturday starter in his first year in Dahlonega after transferring from Middle Tennessee State. The lefty dominated with a 3.81 earned run average (ERA) in 75.2 innings. He led the pitching staff in innings as he tossed six or more innings in eight starts this year. 

Earnhardt also led the team with an impressive strike-throwing ability, fanning a team-high 70 batters on the season which also ranked sixth in the Peach Belt. He also conceded the sixth-fewest walks allowed among PBC starters with only 20 free passes on the year. 

Earnhardt's efforts culminated in a 9-2 record on the mound as he led the conference in wins in 2025. 

Earnhardt serves as the back end of UNG's one-two punch from the starting rotation this year. The heavy-handed left jab in that combination was Williams. 

The graduate left-handed starter led the Nighthawks and ranked eighth in the league with a 3.81 ERA over 63.1 innings this season. He struck out 63 batters and walked just 33. Opponents rarely made contact against Williams during the season as they hit just .241 against the UNG ace which ranked fifth-best in the conference. When Williams did allow hits, they were usually soft as he led the league in fewest doubles allowed at five and also ranked in the top 10 among pitchers with only four homers given up. The Douglasville, Ga. native allowed just 10 extra base hits in total. 

With the individual awards in hand, the Nighthawks will now embark on an effort to grab the most coveted team award in the conference. 

UNG is set to host the quarterfinals of the 2025 PBC Tournament at Bob Stein Stadium at Lynn Cottrell Park this weekend. The top-seeded Nighthawks will face eighth-seeded Augusta in their first game of the double elimination tournament on Friday, May 2 at 11 a.m.