DALLAS (NCBWA) Nine of college baseball's finest student-athletes have been named 2010 National Collegiate Baseball Writers of America District Players of the Year, as the NCBWA announced these 11th annual awards today.
The 2010 NCBWA District Players of the Year are District I: 3B/RP Joe Leonard (Pittsburgh); District II: SS Jedd Gyorko (West Virginia); District III: C Yasmani Grandal (Miami, Fla.); District IV: SP Anthony Meo (Coastal Carolina); District V: OF Alex Dickerson (Indiana); District VI: OF Aaron Senne (Missouri); District VII: 3B Anthony Rendon (Rice); District VIII: C-1B-DH C.J. Cron (Utah); District IX: 2B Zack MacPhee (Arizona State).
Last year's District standouts included eventual Dick Howser Trophy recipient and Washington Nationals' pitching phenom Stephen Strasburg of San Diego State, West Virginia SS Jedd Gyorko, consensus All-America 3B Anthony Rendon of Rice, and OF Kent Matthes of Alabama, among others. Rendon is the only repeater from the 2009 NCBWA District selections.
Leonard already has received All-America recognition from Collegiate Baseball, and the junior from Dawson, Pa., was one of the most versatile players in the Big East Conference in '10. He's the fourth Panther to gain A-A honors since 2004 and was the 2010 Big East Player of the Year. The Dick Howser Trophy semifinalist and John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year Award nominee set several Pitt season marks with 104 hits, 240 times at-bat, 23 doubles, 71 runs-batted-in, season saves with eight, and career saves with 11. He also was Big East Player of the Year in one survey.
Gyorko, a semifinalist for the Brooks Wallace Shortstop of the Year Award, is a hometown Morgantown, W.Va., native who batted .381 with a career-high 19 home runs, 57 RBI, 28 doubles, 90 hits, and 71 runs for the Mountaineers. He also registered a career-best .750 slugging percentage, 43 walks, .973 fielding percentage, and 192 assists (WVU single-season record). He led his team eight of those offensive and defensive categories while racking up 2010 All-America laurels. The West Virginia standout was a 2009 Brooks Wallace Award finalist and concluded his college career with a school-high .404 batting average, 73 doubles, 113 extra base-hits, and co-held career homer record with Tim McCabe at 35.
Grandal posted some of the most impressive numbers ever by a Miami catcher after his family won an extraordinary national lottery to come to the United States from Cuba at the age of 10. The West Palm Beach, Fla., resident paced the Hurricanes to a NCAA Super Regional appearance against Florida with a .411 batting average, 14 home runs, 58 RBI, .729 slugging percentage, .538 on-base percentage, 57 walks, and a sterling .994 fielding percentage as a backstopper. The Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year threw out 40 percent of runners trying to steal against him, is a finalist for the Golden Spikes Award and the Johnny Bench Catcher of the Year Award as well as attaining All-America status.
Meo has been the mainstay on a Coastal Carolina staff, which helped CCU roll to the national lead in overall victories with 55 in its first 63 games this season. He is tied for first place in NCAA individual pitching wins with 13 (13-2) to go along with a 2.63 ERA, 16 starts 95 2/3 innings pitched, 80 hits allowed, 94 strikeouts, 34 walks, and 2010 All-America laurels. The sophomore right-hander from Cranston, N.J., was named Big South Pitcher of the Year and hopes to pace the Chanticleers to a first-ever appearance in the NCAA World Series if they can get past Southeastern Conference power South Carolina. He is a solid candidate for the CBF 2010 Pitcher of the Year as well.
Dickerson, the 2009 Big Ten Conference Freshman of the Year, suffered no sophomore slump in ranking among Big Ten and national leaders in almost every batting category. The Poway, Calif., native was 2010 Big Ten Player of the Year, was All-Big Ten Tournament recognition after going 6-for-12 (.500), and hammered out a .419 average, 99 hits (tied in school season history), 24 homers (second in IU annals), 75 RBI (fifth), 19 doubles (seventh) and an .805 slugging percentage (third in Hoosiers' annual history). He is nine away from the IU career record of 47 circuit clouts with 38 in two seasons and will carry a 17-game hitting streak into 2011. He already is a semifinalist for the Dick Howser Trophy and one of the initial 38 college players nationally invited to USA Baseball's Collegiate Team Trials in June.
Senne was the Big 12 Conference Co-Player of the Year and a 2010 All-American after hitting .400 with 16 home runs, 59 RBI and 22 doubles. He became the first Tiger to hit .400 since 1988. He also was drafted for the third time in '10 after passing up two earlier offers from the Minnesota Twins. The senior from Rochester, Minn. (home of the famed Mayo Clinic), ended his career at MU as the all-time record holder for hits (291), doubles (69), extra-base hits (114), and total bases (492). He is among the Top 10 in Tigers' history in at-bats, home runs, RBI, walks, runs, and slugging percentage. He had helped Missouri play in three of their school-record six consecutive NCAA tournaments before a young squad just missed a big this season.
Rendon is just the second player in Conference USA history to be named Player of the Year in back-to-back seasons after picking up that honor this year while leading the Owls to the regular season league championship. The two-time first team All-C-USA selection was named to the C-USA Championship All-Tournament team and was named the Most Outstanding Player at the NCAA Austin Regional. He batted .402 in conference play and finished the season hitting .394 overall. The sophomore from Houston, Texas, led Conference USA in home runs with 26 and had more homers than strikeouts (22) all season long. Rendon ranks among the nation's leaders in runs scored (83) and walks (65) while maintaining a .530 on-base percentage. He had 12 doubles and 85 RBI, while posting an .801 slugging percentage.
Cron, one of the nation's most versatile standouts, started at catcher, first base and designated hitter for the 2010 Utes. The sophomore from Phoenix, Ariz., already has been selected to a pair of All-America teams while pacing Utah in virtually every category on offense. The two-time All-Mountain West performer leads the nation with 1.65 RBI (81 in 49 contests) and is fifth in slugging percentage (.817). He batted .431 with 55 runs and currently is eighth in NCAA Division I with 0.41 home runs per game. He 81 RBI total is 11th nationally, and Cron was 2010 Mountain West Conference Player of the Year as well as a MWC All-Tournament team member. He is the Utes' first All-America choice since SS Ryan Khoury in 2006.
MacPhee, another of the splendid sophs honored and a Phoenix resident, was a first team All-America and 2010 Pacific-10 Conference Player of the Year. He enters the Tempe Super Regional with a .381 batting average and team-high .490 on-base percentage and .686 slugging percentage. He also set a school record with 14 triples as a sophomore to break the previous mark of 13 by Alan Bannister in 1971. MacPhee also tops the team with 59 RBI and 62 runs scored along with eight home runs, seven doubles, and 18 stolen bases for the No. 1 seed in the 2010 NCAA D-I Tournament. He was a semifinalist for the 2010 Golden Spikes Award and has received ample voting support in the first two ballots for the Dick Howser Trophy.
The group, divided into areas as follows: District I-Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania; District II: Connecticut, West Virginia, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, District of Columbia; III: Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida; IV: Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland; V: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin; VI: Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota; VII: Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana; VIII: Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada, Montana; District IX: California, Oregon, Washington, Hawai'i, Arizona, Alaska.
California, Oregon, Washington, Hawai'i, Arizona, Alaska
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