FAU Baseball Earns Three C-USA Superlative Awards, Has Six All-Conference Members

BOCA RATON, Fla. – (May 21, 2019) – With Tuesday’s announcement of the 2019 Conference USA Baseball Awards, the regular season championship-winning Florida Atlantic University Owls saw eight of their own earn nine individual honors, including three top honorees in the superlative categories.

Leading the Owls to a 22-8 league mark for the regular season title and No. 1 seed in the C-USA Championship, beginning Wednesday, head coach John McCormack has been voted as the Keith LeClair Coach of the Year. It is his first honor since the Owls joined C-USA, and second time he’s earned a conference award as head coach, last being named Sun Belt Coach of the Year in 2010.

Greg Mamula was voted as C-USA Assistant Coach of the Year, as under his tutelage, the Owls’ offense leads the league in hitting (.298), hits (588), runs and scoring (391 and 7.1 runs per game), home runs (56) and slugging percentage (.443). This season, the team’s average is 25 points higher than a year ago, and on-base percentage is 22 points above last year’s mark.

League coaches, SIDs and media members also selected junior catcher Pedro Pages as Defensive Player of the Year. Pages follows in the footsteps of Tyler Frank (last year) and CJ Chatham (2016) in garnering this honor. He has thrown out over 41 percent of would-be basestealers (17 of 41), and adding in three pickoffs, has erased 20 total runners on the basepaths. Additionally, he only has two fielding errors in 408 total chances behind the plate.

Joining that trio in earning All-Conference nods on Tuesday are two First Teamers, pitchers Blake Sanderson and Zach Schneider, Pages and outfielder Andru Summerall on the Second Team, and Mitchell Hartigan and Jacob Josey as All-Freshman.

Sanderson, a fifth-year member of the program and voted by his teammates as captain prior to the year, moved into the vital role as Friday night starter this year and has thrived, with a 7-0 mark to start the season. Those seven wins ties for first among all C-USA starting pitchers. Of 14 starts, he left the game with the Owls in the lead in 11 of them, and pitched to a 3.68 ERA, 10th in the league, while ranking 11th with 68 strikeouts (against only 20 walks).

Senior closer Schneider picked up a win and recorded two saves in the season-closing series sweep over Middle Tennessee, making him 12-4 with 29 saves in his two years as an Owl. This season, he is 5-3 with a 2.98 relief ERA and 14 saves, third in all of Division I and leading Conference USA. In 26 appearances out of the bullpen this year, he has finished out 24 games, also tops in the league.

In addition to his outstanding defensive prowess, Pages is hitting .310 this year with a career-best .433 on-base percentage, 12th in the conference (aided in large part due to 40 walks, which ranks him third). He exceeded his season high in walks in the first game of April, and has more this season than in his first two. His OBP, batting average, six home runs and 40 RBI are all career bests.

Summerall has had a breakout year as the team’s top run producer, especially as of late. As the Owls embarked on a prolonged late-season road trip that saw the team leave Boca Raton and not return for a week and a half, the redshirt sophomore knocked in 17 runs in seven games, including seven in one game, a win over Southern Miss. All told, he has a team-best 54 RBI – fifth in C-USA – with 16 doubles, eight home runs and an average of .301.

Two of the team’s top first-years, Hartigan and Josey, both carved out big roles as true freshmen. Hartigan was inserted in the lineup on the fourth weekend of the year and hasn’t looked back, recording hits in each of his first seven starts, including a stretch of four multi-hit games in a row. He is second among all C-USA freshmen in hitting at .322, along with six home runs and a .526 slugging percentage, while ranking third with 31 RBI.

Josey almost had two separate seasons, first as a shortstop, and now as the team’s Sunday starter. He started 20 games at short, and 18 out of 24 in the middle portion of the season, steadying the team defensively (with just three errors in 93 chances), while leading all C-USA hitters with 11 successful sacrifices. After five relief appearances in the team’s first 38 games, he moved into the rotation, and has a total pitching line of a 1-0 record and 3.29 ERA.

Here is the list of the awards handed out on Tuesday in its entirety:

2019 CONFERENCE USA AWARDS

·         Player of the Year – Jake Sanford, Jr., OF, WKU

·         Pitcher of the Year – Matt Canterino, Jr., RHP, Rice

·         Freshman of the Year – Andy Garriolla, Fr., OF, Old Dominion

·         Newcomer of the Year – Jake Sanford, Jr., OF, WKU

·         Defensive Player of the Year – Pedro Pages, Jr., C, Florida Atlantic

·         Keith Leclair Coach of the Year – John McCormack, Florida Atlantic

·         Assistant Coach of the Year – Greg Mamula, Florida Atlantic

FIRST TEAM ALL-CONFERENCE

·         IF – Bryan Arias, Sr., UTSA

·         IF – Mason Mallard, Jr., Louisiana Tech

·         IF – Vinnie Pasquantino, Jr., Old Dominion

·         IF – Elvis Peralta, Jr., Marshall

·         OF – Andy Garriolla, Fr., Old Dominion

·         OF – Jake Sanford, Jr., WKU

·         OF – Matt Wallner, Jr., Southern Miss

·         C – Harris Yett, Sr., Charlotte

·         DH – Andre Dunlap, Sr., Rice

·         UT – Logan Allen, So., FIU

·         SP – Matt Canterino, Jr., Rice

·         SP – Karan Patel, Sr., UTSA

·         SP – Walker Powell, Jr., Southern Miss

·         SP – Blake Sanderson, Sr., Florida Atlantic

·         RP – Zach Schneider, Sr., Florida Atlantic

·         RP – Braxton Smith, Sr., Louisiana Tech

SECOND TEAM ALL-CONFERENCE

·         IF – Trei Cruz, So., Rice

·         IF – Austin Shenton, Jr., FIU

·         IF – Hunter Slater, Sr., Southern Miss

·         IF – Bryce Windham, Sr., Old Dominion

·         OF – Parker Bates, Jr., Louisiana Tech

·         OF – Gabe Montenegro, So., Southern Miss

·         OF – Andru Summerall, So., Florida Atlantic

·         C – Pedro Pages, Jr., Florida Atlantic

·         DH – Bryant Bowen, Jr., Southern Miss

·         UT – Peyton Wiggington, So., Middle Tennessee

·         SP – Evan Kravetz, So., Rice

·         SP – Matt Miller, Sr., Louisiana Tech

·         SP – Ryne Moore, So., Old Dominion

·         SP – Joshua Shapiro, Sr., Marshall

·         RP – Colby Bruce, Jr., Charlotte

·         RP – Hunter Gregory, So., Old Dominion

ALL-FRESHMAN TEAM

·         IF – Josh Haney, Charlotte

·         IF – Danny Lynch, Southern Miss

·         OF – Jess Davis, UAB

·         OF/IF – Luke Edwards, Marshall

·         OF – Jarrett Ford, FIU

·         OF – Andy Garriola, Old Dominion

·         OF – Mitchell Hartigan, Florida Atlantic

·         OF – Jackson Swiney, WKU

·         OF – Ryan Teschko, Old Dominion

·         LHP – Jonathan Fincher, Louisiana Tech

·         RHP/IF – Jacob Josey, Florida Atlantic

·         RHP – Josh Young, Middle Tennessee

 FAUSports.com –

Florida Atlantic University Athletics:

FAU Athletics is comprised of 21 intercollegiate teams involving 450 student-athletes that compete in baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, indoor and outdoor track, volleyball, beach volleyball, cheer and dance. The Owls are a NCAA Division I-A (FBS) institution and compete in Conference USA and the Coastal Collegiate Sports Association (CCSA) (beach volleyball, men’s swimming). The Owls have been playing football since 2001 and are a perfect 3-0 in bowl games, the most recent being a 50-3 victory over Akron in the 2017 Cheribundi Tart Cherry Boca Raton Bowl. The dance team finished its 2014 season No. 8, nationally. FAU cheer won a national championship in 2016.

About Florida Atlantic University:

Florida Atlantic University, established in 1961, officially opened its doors in 1964 as the fifth public university in Florida. Today, the University, with an annual economic impact of $6.3 billion, serves more than 30,000 undergraduate and graduate students at sites throughout its six county service region in southeast Florida. FAU’s world-class teaching and research faculty serves students through 10 colleges: the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, the College of Business, the College for Design and Social Inquiry, the College of Education, the College of Engineering and Computer Science, the Graduate College, the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College, the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing and the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science. FAU is ranked as a High Research Activity institution by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The University is placing special focus on the rapid development of critical areas that form the basis of its strategic plan: Healthy aging, biotech, coastal and marine issues, neuroscience, regenerative medicine, informatics, lifespan and the environment. These areas provide opportunities for faculty and students to build upon FAU’s existing strengths in research and scholarship. For more information, visit www.fau.edu.