FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Aaron Fitt, 919-682-9635, ext. 114 [email protected] June 30, 2009
RICE'S RENDON NAMED TOP FRESHMAN; CAL STATE FULLERTON LANDS THREE ON FRESHMAN ALL-AMERICA TEAM
DURHAM, N.C.—Freshman of the Year Anthony Rendon, a third baseman for Rice, leads the 2009 Baseball America Freshman All-America team. Rendon is the second Owl to win the award, joining Joe Savery in 2005. Rendon tied fellow first- team All-Freshman choice and second-team All-American Troy Channing with 20 home runs, the most of any freshmen in the nation. Channing won the West Coast Conference triple crown, while Rendon was just three RBIs shy of doing the same in Conference USA. And Rendon settled into Rice's cleanup spot and led the Owls to super regionals, where they lost to eventual national champion Louisiana State. The Southeastern Conference placed the most players on the first team (three), but the Big West placed the most on both teams (four), led by Cal State Fullerton's three. The Titans landed one player (righthander Noe Ramirez) on the first team and two players (closer/DH Nick Ramirez and righty Tyler Pill) on the second team. Ten different conferences were represented on the first team, and 15 were represented on both teams. The teams were selected by the staff of Baseball America.
FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR WINNERS 1982—Cory Snyder, 3b, Brigham Young 1983—Rafael Palmeiro, of, Mississippi State 1984—Greg Swindell, lhp, Texas 1985—Jack McDowell, rhp, Stanford; Ron Wenrich, of, Georgia 1986—Robin Ventura, 3b, Oklahoma State 1987—Paul Carey, of, Stanford 1988—Kirk Dressendorfer, rhp, Texas 1989—Alex Fernandez, rhp, Miami 1990—Jeffrey Hammonds, of, Stanford 1991—Brooks Kieschnick, rhp/dh, Texas 1992—Todd Walker, 2b, Louisiana State 1993—Brett Laxton, rhp, Louisiana State 1994—R.A. Dickey, rhp, Tennessee 1995—Kyle Peterson, rhp, Stanford 1996—Pat Burrell, 3b, Miami 1997—Brian Roberts, ss, North Carolina 1998—Xavier Nady, 2b, California 1999—James Jurries, 2b, Tulane 2000—Kevin Howard, 3b-ss, Miami 2001—Michael Aubrey, lhp-1b, Tulane 2002—Stephen Drew, ss, Florida State 2003—Ryan Braun, ss, Miami 2004—Wade LeBlanc, lhp, Alabama 2005—Joe Savery, lhp/1b, Rice 2006—Pedro Alvarez, 3b, Vanderbilt 2007—Dustin Ackley, 1b, North Carolina 2008—Chris Hernandez, lhp, Miami 2009—Anthony Rendon, 3b, Rice
Pos. FIRST TEAM AVG OBP SLG AB R H HR RBI SB C Jeremy Schaffer, Tulane .311 .370 .566 212 40 66 14 56 1 1B Preston Tucker, Florida .364 419 .626 242 48 88 15 85 5 2B Matt Jensen, Cal Poly .375 .493 .650 160 42 60 9 53 2 3B Anthony Rendon, Rice .388 .461 .702 242 60 94 20 72 9 SS A.J. Pettersen, Minnesota .353 .445 .438 224 65 79 2 45 8 OF Jackie Bradley Jr., South Carolina .349 .431 .537 255 69 89 11 46 8 OF George Springer, Connecticut .358 .454 .679 212 75 76 16 57 12 OF Kolten Wong, Hawaii .341 .418 .597 226 46 77 11 52 11 DH Troy Channing, St. Mary's .379 .463 .723 206 45 78 20 75 2 UT Danny Hultzen, Virginia .327 .410 .422 199 40 65 3 37 9 W L ERA G SV IP H BB SO BAA SP Trevor Bauer, UCLA 9 3 2.99 20 2 105 85 27 92 .225 SP Sean Gilmartin, Florida State 12 3 3.49 18 1 98 81 37 83 .221 SP Taylor Jungmann, Texas 11 3 2.00 25 0 95 65 35 101 .193 SP Noe Ramirez, Cal State Fullerton 9 2 3.33 20 0 111 90 24 100 .227 RP Matty Ott, Louisiana State 4 2 2.68 37 16 50 46 6 69 .237 UT Danny Hultzen, Virginia 9 1 2.17 17 0 95 88 28 107 .250
Pos. SECOND TEAM AVG OBP SLG AB R H HR RBI SB C C.J. Cron, Utah .337 .375 .557 246 39 83 11 58 1 1B Todd Brazeal, South Florida .355 .467 .495 204 48 71 5 50 1 2B Ross Heffley, Western Carolina .391 .467 .536 235 48 92 4 51 7 3B Matt Skole, Georgia Tech .302 .384 .600 215 41 65 17 58 2 SS Sam Mende, South Florida .319 .395 .466 232 41 74 5 37 3 OF Kameron Brunty, Southern Miss .336 .437 .502 229 62 77 7 53 7 OF Dusty Robinson, Fresno State .319 .391 .604 207 52 66 15 45 7 OF Tyler Sibley, Texas State .367 .467 .590 229 77 84 10 38 14 DH Alex Dickerson, Indiana .370 .426 .618 238 45 88 14 57 2 UT Nick Ramirez, Cal State Fullerton .287 .341 .548 157 25 45 10 31 0 W L ERA G SV IP H BB SO BAA SP Jordan Cooper, Wichita State 8 6 2.78 15 0 97 87 20 91 .248 SP Sam Gaviglio, Oregon State 10 1 2.73 18 1 63 45 9 55 .200 SP Anthony Meo, Coastal Carolina 9 2 2.93 17 0 77 67 32 68 .233 SP Tyler Pill, Cal State Fullerton 11 3 4.06 17 0 102 97 13 74 .247 RP Mitchell Lambson, Arizona State 9 5 3.01 32 5 84 58 25 99 .199 UT Nick Ramirez, Cal State Fullerton 3 1 2.61 23 7 41 39 10 30 .255