East Carolina designated hitter Ryan Jones, righthanded pitcher Greg Bunn and skipper Randy Mazey headline the list of league award winners as announced on Tuesday in Houston, the site of the Conference USA Baseball Tournament.

Jones claimed Player of the Year honors, while Bunn was named Pitcher of the Year, marking the first time since 1996 that players from the same school won both of those awards. Mazey was selected as the Keith LeClair Coach of the Year after leading the fourth-ranked Pirates to their first C-USA league crown with a 47-9 overall record and 25-5 conference mark. TCU’s Chad Huffman was named the league’s Freshman of the Year. Voting was done by a panel consisting of each head coach, each team’s sports information director and a media representative from each city.

Jones has led the nation in slugging percentage nearly all season long and is currently at a .871 clip. He leads Conference USA in batting (.409) and on-base percentage (.513), while ranking second in total bases (162) and runs batted in (63). Earlier this season, Jones broke the school’s single-season record for doubles and currently has 24 two-baggers. Jones, who has twice been named C-USA Hitter of the Week this season, is also a semifinalist for the Dick Howser Trophy award, given to the nation’s top collegiate baseball player.

During the offseason, Bunn converted from being the Pirates’ closer to their No.1 starter. In 14 starts, he posted an 8-0 record with a 2.91 ERA, the second-lowest mark in Conference USA. Bunn held opposing batters to a league-low .190 batting average and struck out 95 batters (third in C-USA) while walking just 28 in 86 2/3 innings pitched. He combined with ECU relievers to throw four shutouts and was twice named C-USA Pitcher of the Week.

In just his second season at the helm of the East Carolina program, Mazey was named Keith LeClair Coach of the Year after leading the Pirates to their first regular season C-USA title by a league-record four games. Picked in the preseason coaches poll to finish fifth, East Carolina set a new Conference USA record with 25 league victories this spring and won a conference-record 22 in a row at one point. The Pirates were ranked as high as No. 4 in last week’s national polls, which matches the highest ranking a Conference USA team has ever achieved. This is the second conference Coach of the Year honor for Mazey, who was honored by the Big South Conference in 1996 after leading Charleston Southern to the NCAA Tournament.

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 equipped van.

Huffman is the first TCU player to earn conference Freshman of the Year honors since his brother, Royce, was named Freshman of the Year by the Southwest Conference in the league’s final year in 1996. He has led all C-USA freshmen in batting all season and is currently fifth in the league at .389. Huffman tops TCU in doubles with 17 and has nine home runs and 38 RBI. He has reached base safely in 51 of 55 games and has recorded 24 multiple hit outings.

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


2004 CONFERENCE USA BASEBALL AWARDS


PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Ryan Jones, East Carolina

PITCHER OF THE YEAR
Greg Bunn, East Carolina

FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR
Chad Huffman, TCU

KEITH LECLAIR COACH OF THE YEAR
Randy Mazey, East Carolina



FIRST TEAM ALL-CONFERENCE
IF Jarrett Hoffpauir Southern Miss
IF Trevor Lawhorn East Carolina
IF Ryan Norwood East Carolina
IF Matt Shepherd Southern Miss
OF Matt Barket Tulane
OF Ryan Frith Southern Miss
OF Mark Jurich Louisville
C Devin Ivany USF
DH/UT Ryan Jones East Carolina
P Greg Bunn East Carolina
P J.R. Crowel Tulane
P Jarrett Grube Memphis
P Casey Hudspeth USF
RP Austin Tubb Southern Miss


SECOND TEAM ALL-CONFERENCE
IF Brent Dlugach Memphis
IF Shelby Ford TCU
IF Myron Leslie USF
IF Jamie Rusco Charlotte
OF Chad Huffman TCU
OF Jamie Paige East Carolina
OF Darryl Lawhorn ECU
OF Travis Tully Houston
C Steve Pickerell Cincinnati
DH/UT Brian Bogusevic Tulane
P Anthony DeWitt Southern Miss
P Derek Hankins Memphis
P Cory Hahn Tulane
P Clayton Jerome TCU
RP Robbie Findlay TCU



ALL-FRESHMAN TEAM
Daniel Burton, OF/1B/DH, Louisville
Mike Cashion, P, Southern Miss
German Duran, SS, TCU
Patrick Ezell, P, Southern Miss
Shelby Ford, 3B, TCU
Casey Hudspeth, P, USF
Chad Huffman, DH/IF, TCU
Daniel Latham, P, Tulane
Brad Lincoln, P, Houston
Shane Matthews, P, East Carolina
Zac Ward, IF, UAB