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NEW HARTFORD -- The Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League announced Tuesday that Batavia Muckdogs right-handed pitcher Eric Woodley (Arkansas Tech) has been named the Pitcher of the Year for the 2026 season.
This summer for the champion Batavia Muckdogs, Woodley went 5-1 with a 1.67 ERA in 17 appearances, and also co-led the league with five saves. In 32 1-3 innings pitched, he recorded 39 strikeouts and had a 0.93 WHIP. Of those 17 appearances, he had a perfect outing in seven of them.
Woodley’s third season with Batavia ended with him closing out the first league championship in franchise history. In fact, he finished all three playoff games as Batavia defeated Auburn, Jamestown and Utica in their path to the title. Woodley earned the save in the win over Jamestown in the West Division final to send the Muckdogs to their second straight PGCBL championship series. In the championship game against the Blue Sox, he worked out of a jam, putting two runners on but then inducing a flyout and a game-ending double play, kicking off the dog pile on the mound.
In 2024, Woodley appeared in two games and had a 1.93 ERA for the Muckdogs. He returned to a bigger role in 2025, making 14 appearances and going 4-0 with a 3.28 ERA in 35 2-3 innings and 34 strikeouts. He closes out this year with a 10-1 record in his Muckdogs career.
On June 16 in Geneva, Woodley entered a slugfest with the teams tied at 14 and two runners on. He proceeded to strike out the next two batters to end the inning. Batavia scored twice in the ninth, so Woodley went back out and struck out the side to run his consecutive punchout streak in the game to five straight.
June 27 was another nail-biter ending where Woodley established his dominance. Up by a 6-5 score over the Niagara Ironbacks, he needed just 14 pitches to strike out the side in order and earn the save.
Woodley made his lone start of the season on July 15 and went seven dominant innings against the Jamestown Tarp Skunks. He allowed just one run in a 10-3 win. The win moved the Muckdogs to within a half-game of first place of the Tarp Skunks at that time and helped Batavia gain the momentum to overtake Jamestown and win the division by 2.5 games.
The junior from Buffalo, New York, pitched for Arkansas Tech University this past spring as their closer. He went 2-1 with 11 saves, recording 28 strikeouts in 25 2-3 innings and pitched to a 2.10 ERA.
This is the second time Batavia has earned Pitcher of the Year honors from the league. Woodley joins Nolan Sparks, who took home the award in 2022 and was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in 2024.