MORGANTOWN, W. Va. (NCBWA) – After two rounds of voting by the organization, 75 baseball student-athletes comprise the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association's 21st Annual All-America first, second and third teams, as announced on Wednesday.
Nineteen different conferences are represented and 11 conference championships teams. The three All-America squads are also made up of 14 conference players of the year, 10 conference pitchers of the year winners and 10 first-round draft picks in the recent Major League Baseball Amateur Draft.
Members of this year's team lead or are tied for the lead nationally in 18 different categories, including batting average (Greg Cullen, Niagara, .458), hits (Devlin Granberg, Dallas Baptist, 112), hits per game (Ryan Ward, Bryant, 1.80), runs (Matt Sanders, Troy, 90), runs per game (Sanders, 1.43), home runs (Spender Torkelson 25), home runs per game (Bren Spillane, Illinois, 0.46), on-base percentage (Cullen, .556), RBI (Chase Chambers, Tennessee Tech, 84), slugging percentage (Spillane, .903), total bases (Kevin Strohschein, Tennessee Tech, 184), hits allowed per nine innings (John Rooney, Hofstra, 4.83), strikeouts (Logan Gilbert, Stetson, 163), strikeout to walk ratio (Clayton Andrews, Long Beach State, 35.8), victories (Luke Heimlich, Oregon State, 16), ERA (Nick Sandlin, Southern Miss, 1.06), saves (Chris Mauloni, Jacksonville; Brooks Wilson, Stetson, 20) and WHIP (Sandlin, 0.71).
Previous NCBWA All-America teams from 1996-2017 have featured the likes of P Stephen Strasburg of San Diego State, OF J.D. Drew of Florida State, 1B Mark Teixeira of Georgia Tech, RHP Mark Prior of Southern California, SS-2B Rickie Weeks of Southern, 3B Alex Gordon of Nebraska, P David Price of Vanderbilt, C Buster Posey of Florida State, 3B Anthony Rendon of Rice, C Mike Zunino of Florida, 3B Kris Bryant of San Diego, P-1B A.J. Reed from Kentucky; OF Andrew Benintendi from Arkansas, OF Seth Beer of Clemson and UTL Brendan McKay from Louisville among others.
Founded in 1962, the NCBWA is dedicated to the advancement of college baseball. Membership is open to writers, broadcasters and publicists of the sport. For more information about the NCBWA, visit the association's official Web site, www.ncbwa.com.
For more information on the NCAA Division I All-America team, contact NCBWA Assistant Executive Director Mike Montoro of West Virginia University at 304-293-2821.
Related link:
• NCBWA All-America Teams (2001-18)