Wayne State College's Nate Cunningham and Braden Cannon were honored late Monday afternoon as the Wildcat seniors were named to the D2CCA All-Central Region Baseball Teams that is voted on by the NCAA Division II Sports Information Directors Association.  Cunningham received First Team honors at shortstop while Cannon was a Second Team All-Region selection as a utility player/pitcher.  Cunningham also collected NCBWA All-Central Region First Team honors announced last Friday. 
            A graduate of Elkhorn North HS, Cunningham earned All-NSIC First Team honors and was voted by league coaches as the NSIC Player of the Year following a standout senior season, posting a .359 batting average with 15 home runs and 54 RBI while ranking in the top 10 of the NSIC in nine major statistical categories.
            He was the lone Wildcat to start and play all 52 games this season and led the NSIC in hits (71) and at bats (198), tied for third in home runs, fifth in slugging percentage (.682), seventh in batting average, eighth in runs scored (53) and RBI and ninth in stolen bases.
            Cunningham had 24 multi-hit games and 15 games with multiple RBI and was named NSIC Player of the Week March 16^th after going 9 for 15 (.600) at the plate in a three-game sweep over Minnesota Crookston with two home runs, one triple and 11 RBI.  He is the first Wildcat player since Joe Wendte (went – ee) in 2009 to be named NSIC Player of the Year in baseball.
            Cannon, a 6-1, 205-pound senior third baseman/relief pitcher from Millard South HS, was tabbed All-NSIC Second Team as a relief pitcher/utility player after leading the NSIC in saves this season with 10 while batting .274 at the plate with six home runs and 33 RBI.
            As a relief pitcher, Cannon produced a 3-1 record with his NSIC-best 10 saves and a 2.76 ERA.  He ended the regular season with saves in four straight games against Northern State and Jamestown and ended his Wildcat career with WSC and NSIC all-time saves leader at 37.
            In the field, Cannon started 49 games at third base and had a .274 batting average scoring 27 runs with 43 hits and nine multi-hit games to go with eight multiple RBI contests.  He was a season-best 3 for 6 with five RBI and three runs scored in a 26-15 win over Bemidji State March 28^th. 
            Wayne State finished the 2026 season at 29-23 overall and was fifth place in the NSIC with a 21-16 league mark.