Baseball America Names Three C-USA Players All-Americans

Ryan Jones

Three Conference USA players were named to the Baseball America All-American team, the publication announced on Thursday in Omaha, site of the 58th annual College World Series. East Carolina’s Ryan Jones, Southern Miss’ Jarrett Hoffpauir and Brian Bogusevic were each named as second team All-America selections. Jones and Hoffpauir are consensus All-America selections, while Bogusevic is the 10th different C-USA player to earn first, second or third team AA honors in 2004.

Jones was named the 2004 Conference USA Player of the Year after hitting .409 heading into the conference tournament and finishing league play hitting .407 in conference. He led the nation in slugging percentage for most of the season, finishing at .823 with 49 of his 86 hits serving as extra-base hits including 26 doubles, four triples and 19 home runs. He posted a team-high 69 RBI and posted 25 multiple hit games and 14 multiple RBI games. Jones closed the season batting an even .400.

Hoffpauir had one of the finest if not the finest season ever by a Golden Eagle. The first team All-C-USA selection had a team-leading .405 batting average, scored 62 runs, had a school-record 109 hits, tied for the team lead with 27 doubles, hit two triples, 11 home runs, a school-record 92 RBIs, a school-record 12 sacrifice flies and was walked 20 times. In the field, he finished with only six errors for the season in 332 fielding chances (.982) and helped turn 52 double plays. Hoffpauir only struck out eight times for the season, which equates to one strikeout every 38.25 plate appearances. He produced a run every 3.3 plate appearances and committed an error in the field once in every 55.3 chances.

Bogusevic was top two-way performer in Conference USA this season, standing out both at the plate and on the mound. He led the team in RBI (68), triples (4) and total bases (132) while ranking second in home runs (10) and slugging percentage (.559) and fourth in hitting (.339). On the mound, Bogusevic paced the Green Wave in innings pitched (111.2) and strikeouts (84), finished tied for the team lead in wins (9), and third in ERA (4.19) and opponent batting average (.289).

For more information, please visit www.baseballamerica.com.