HATTIESBURG, Miss. – Tulane outfielder/designated hitter Micah Owings, third baseman Brad Emaus and skipper Rick Jones headline the list of league award winners as announced on Tuesday in Hattiesburg, Miss., the site of the 2005 Conference USA Baseball Tournament presented by POWERade. Owings was named Player of the Year, Emaus earned Freshman of the Year honors and Jones took home his third Keith LeClair Conference USA Coach of the Year award. It marks the first time since 2001 that a school has claimed all three of those awards in the same season, and the Green Wave were the last team to accomplish it during their College World Series season. Pitcher of the Year honors went to TCU’s Lance Broadway who has been masterful this season in posting a nation-leading 13 victories. Voting was done by a panel consisting of each head coach, each team’s sports information director and a media representative from each city.

Owings shined as one of the top two-way performers in the country during his first year in New Orleans. He led Conference USA in slugging percentage with a .699 clip, ranking second in the league in home runs with 15. Owings batted .324 with 47 runs scored, 14 doubles and 50 RBI. On the mound, he posted an 8-4 record with a 3.79 ERA. Owings tied for the team lead in strikeouts with 108 and walked just 17 batters in 99 2/3 innings pitched.

Emaus has ranked among the Conference USA batting leaders all season and takes a .344 average, second among all freshmen, into this week’s C-USA Tournament. His 16 doubles, 12 home runs and 47 RBI are tops among the league’s freshman players. Emaus, whose .586 slugging percentage is second on the team, has started every game this season.

Broadway has been a dominant force in conference play, posting a 9-0 record with a 1.66 ERA in 10 league starts. Overall, he is 13-1, tied for the national lead in victories, while setting a new TCU record and matching the C-USA record for wins in a season. Broadway has shattered the school record for strikeouts with 135 and has walked just 31 batters in 102 innings pitched. He has thrown four complete games and his shutout at No.1 Tulane on May 20 was his third of the year.

All three individual award winners are playing in their first season in Conference USA. In addition to the freshman Emaus, Owings is a transfer from Georgia Tech and Broadway transferred across the Metroplex from Dallas Baptist.

In his 12th season at the helm of the Tulane program, Jones was named Keith LeClair Coach of the Year for the third time after leading the Green Wave to their fourth regular season C-USA title. At 47-9, Tulane owns the best record in Division I as the Wave have posted their ninth campaign with 40 or more wins under Jones and will make their 10th NCAA appearance under his tutelage. Picked by Baseball America as the preseason No.1 team, Tulane has stayed atop the polls for nearly the entire season, the first C-USA team to be ranked No. 1 in the nation. The winningest coach in Conference USA history, he was named as the league’s Coach of the Decade on Monday.

The Keith LeClair Coach of the Year award is named after the former East Carolina head coach, who courageously continues to battle ALS, or as it is more commonly known as, Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Diagnosed with the disease in 2001, LeClair continues to attend Pirate home games, watching from a specially designed suite in ECU’s new home field that bears his name, Clark-LeClair Stadium.

Regular season champion Tulane had the most first team selections with five, while Southern Miss had three. Tulane placed a league-best seven representatives on the two All-Conference teams. Southern Miss had five total selections, while East Carolina earned four. ECU was the only team to produce three All-Freshman team selections, while Tulane and TCU each had two.


2005 CONFERENCE USA BASEBALL AWARDS

PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Micah Owings, Tulane

PITCHER OF THE YEAR
Lance Broadway, TCU

FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR
Brad Emaus, Tulane

KEITH LECLAIR COACH OF THE YEAR
Rick Jones, Tulane

FIRST TEAM ALL-CONFERENCE
IF Shelby Ford, TCU
IF Brad Emaus, Tulane
IF Marc Maddox, Southern Miss
IF Tommy Manzella, Tulane
OF Brian Cavanaugh, East Carolina
OF Nathan Southard, Tulane
OF Travis Tully, Houston
C Brad Willcutt, Southern Miss
DH/UT Micah Owings, Tulane
P Brian Bogusevic, Tulane
P Lance Broadway, TCU
P Ricky Brooks, East Carolina
P Matt Farrington, Houston
RP Daniel Best, Southern Miss

SECOND TEAM ALL-CONFERENCE
IF Jeff Baisley, USF
IF Chad Huffman, TCU
IF J.T. LaFountain, Louisville
IF Mark Minicozzi, East Carolina
IF Trey Sutton, Southern Miss
OF Jason Lowery, Southern Miss
OF Boomer Whiting, Louisville
OF Adam Willard, Charlotte
C Greg Dini, Tulane
DH/UT Kevin Roberts, Houston
P Ryan Bird, Saint Louis
P J.R. Crowel, Tulane
P T.J. Hose, East Carolina
P Casey Hudspeth, USF
RP Erik Walker, Charlotte

ALL-FRESHMAN TEAM
Brad Emaus, 3B, Tulane
T.J. Hose, RHP, East Carolina
Matt McGuirk, DH, TCU
Dale Mollenhauer, IF, East Carolina
Keith Moreland, RHP, Charlotte
Sean Morgan, RHP, Tulane
Ryan Peisel, OF, East Carolina
Trey Sutton, 2B, Southern Miss
Daniel Thomas, RHP, USF
Clint Toomey, OF, UAB
Andrew Walker, C, TCU