C-USA Announces Baseball All-Conference Awards
May 20, 2008
East Carolina headlined the league's top individual awards, winning three of the five major awards as announced on Tuesday in New Orleans, the site of the 2008 Conference USA Baseball Championship. Senior C Corey Kemp was named Player of the Year, right-handed pitcher Seth Maness grabbed Freshman of the Year honors and junior righthander Justin Bristow earned Newcomer of the Year recognition. Tulane right-hander Shooter Hunt was named Pitcher of the Year and Rice skipper Wayne Graham took home his third consecutive Keith LeClair Conference USA Coach of the Year award. Voting was done by a panel consisting of each head coach, each team's sports information director and a media representative from each city. Kemp has been one of the most productive hitters in Conference USA all season long, leading the league in home runs (15) and RBI (66), while batting .358 with a .637 slugging percentage. He has produced 20 multi-hit and 17 multi-RBI games and has produced 11 game-winning RBI. In 24 conference games, he batted .319 with 10 homers and 38 RBI. A finalist for the Johnny Bench Award, Kemp was a semifinalist for the Dick Howser Trophy and became the second Pirate catcher in three years to earn first team All-C-USA honors. Maness became just the second freshman in East Carolina history to win nine games, tying for the C-USA lead in victories. Maness is 9-1 on the season with a 2.79 ERA, third-lowest in the league. He has a team-best 75 strikeouts and has walked just 17 batters in 84 innings pitched. Maness had two games in which he did not allow an earned run and had five outings in which he allowed one walk or less walks. Bristow, a transfer from Auburn, has had a highly-successful first season in a Pirate uniform, posting an 8-2 record with a 3.05 ERA and 73 strikeouts with 22 walks. He has tossed a pair of complete-game shutouts and has allowed just three home runs in 82.2 innings pitched. Hunt became the fourth Tulane hurler in as many years to post 100 strikeouts in a single season and now has 110 Ks in 2008. Hunt is 9-2 on the year with a 2.10 ERA, while holding opposing batters to a .148 average. Since joining the Green Wave prior to the 2007 season, Hunt is a combined 15-8 with a 2.39 ERA and a .197 opponent batting average. A finalist for the Dick Howser Trophy, he was the only player to earn C-USA Pitcher of the Week honors three times.
Graham led the Owls' to their third consecutive C-USA regular season championship and the number five ranking in the nation heading into this week's conference championship. Rice has won 21 of its last 22 games to post a 42-11 overall record. The Blue & Gray finished 21-3 in C-USA play and are a sparkling 65-7 in league play since becoming a member of Conference USA. In his 17th season at the helm of the Rice program, Graham is no stranger to receiving coaching honors. In addition to winning the previous two Keith LeClair Coach of the Year honors, he was named the Western Athletic Conference Coach of the Year in 1998, 1999, 2002 and the co-coach of the year in 2003. The Austin American-Statesman named Graham its Southwest Conference Coach of the Year in 1995. The Keith LeClair Coach of the Year award is named after the former East Carolina head coach who courageously battled ALS, or as it is more commonly known as, Lou Gehrig's Disease. Diagnosed with the disease in 2001, LeClair continued to attend Pirate home games and support ECU baseball until passing away in July, 2006. Regular season champion Rice had the most total All-Conference selections with seven and East Carolina had five, while Southern Miss and Tulane each produced four. Seven of the league's nine teams had at least one representative on the first team, with ECU and Southern Miss each placing three players on the first team. Four different schools tied with four selections to the All-Freshman team. 2008 CONFERENCE USA BASEBALL AWARDS PLAYER OF THE YEAR PITCHER OF THE YEAR FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR KEITH LECLAIR COACH OF THE YEAR FIRST TEAM ALL-CONFERENCE IF James Ewing, Jr., Southern Miss IF Ryan Keedy, Sr., UAB IF Bryan Pounds, Sr., Houston IF Diego Seastrunk, So., Rice OF Harrison Eldridge, Sr., East Carolina OF Nate Lape, Jr., Marshall OF Jake Stewart, Sr., Houston C Corey Kemp, Sr., East Carolina DH/UT Anthony Scelfo, Jr., Tulane P Ryan Berry, So., Rice P Barry Bowden, Sr., Southern Miss P Shooter Hunt, Jr., Tulane P Seth Maness, Fr., East Carolina RP Tyler Conn, Sr., Southern Miss SECOND TEAM ALL-CONFERENCE IF Stephen Batts, Jr., East Carolina IF Brian Dozier, Jr., Southern Miss IF Seth Henry, Jr., Tulane IF Rob Segedin, Fr., Tulane OF Colin Arnold, Jr., UCF OF Phil Bell, Sr., UAB OF Jared Gayheart, Jr., Rice OF Aaron Luna, Jr., Rice C Adam Zornes, Jr., Rice DH/UT Victor Gomez, Fr., Marshall P Steve Blevins, Jr., Marshall P Justin Bristow, Jr., East Carolina P Chris Kelley, Sr., Rice P Wes Musick, So., Houston RP Cole St.Clair, Sr., Rice ALL-FRESHMAN TEAM Nick Crawford, 2B, UAB Chase Dempsay, RHP, Houston Matt Evers, LHP, Rice Victor Gomez, DH, Marshall Rick Hague, SS, Rice Dustin Harrington, SS, East Carolina Blake Kelso, SS, Houston Seth Maness, RHP, East Carolina Todd McInnis, RHP, Southern Miss Nick Pepitone, RHP, Tulane Rob Segedin, 3B/RHP, Tulane |
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