CHARLESTON – The Big South Conference announced the honorees for the league's 2025 annual awards on Tuesday morning with five different Buccaneers claiming honors.
Aidan McAskie was named as the Big South Scholar-Athlete of the Year, becoming the third player in program history to earn the honor. McAskie is a 3.91 student majoring in Financial Management. He finished the 2025 regular-season with 11 home runs, 43 RBI, a .311 batting average, 45 runs scored, 11 doubles, .575 slugging clip and .445 on-base percentage. As of recent, he has been on a tear with it showing in his confernce play numbers as he is batting .365, slugging .741 and has an on base percentage of .491.
Ryan DuSang was selected as a First-Team All-Conference relief pitching honoree. In Big South action he has been lights out as he holds an ERA of .90, WHIP of .70 and oppsing batting avergae of .134. He has thrown in 12 contests for 20.0 innings of work and picked up 27 strikeouts. Overall on the year he has an ERA of 2.72 and WHIP of 1.21 in his 23 appearances. DuSang has picked up a pair of saves to go along with his 3-0 record on the year as well. He has statistically ranked as the Buccaneers' top option in their pitching staff as well as in the league.
Tyler Henshaw earned Second-Team All-Conference as a reliever. In his 19 appearances on the year he has tallied 39.0 innings of work and holds a record of 7-1. His ERA of 3.69 is the second-lowest on the squad and he pairs it with a WHIP of 1.26. Additionally, he has picked up a save this spring.
Kaden Smith was chosen as the Second-Team All-Conference designated hitter. This year he has been a focal point for the squad in helping to power them to the top of the program history in nearly every offensive statistic. He is batting .345 on the year in his 45 games played and started. More impressively, he holds an on base percentage of .453 and slugging of .661. He has 14 doubles on the year and 13 home runs. His RBI tally is currently at 72 this spring, more than 20 higher than the previous school record. Last weekend at Gardner-Webb, he collected five doubles to tie the NCAA single game record, becoming the ninth in national history to do it and the first since 2019. In league play, he is boosting a slugging percentage of .759 for one of the highest in the Big South to go with a batting average of .373.
AJ Martin rounded out the squad's honorees as he earned Honorable Mention All-Conference. He has one of the power hitters for the squad's lineup with his .309 batting average, .567 slugging percentage and .389 on base percentage. He has clubbed 12 home runs this spring to go with 12 doubles and a triple across his 60 hits. He has scored 51 times and collected 47 RBIs.
Charleston Southern will begin their quest for their second-ever NCAA Tournament appearance later this week in the Big South Championships at Truist Point in High Point, N.C. They earned the #3 seed for the event, their highest since 2011 and will begin the week on Wednesday at 3 p.m against #6 Presbyterian. The championship game will be held on Saturday with all of the week's action to be available live on ESPN+.
