BATON ROUGE — LSU outfielder Ryan Patterson and first baseman Clay Harris have been named to the 2004 National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association pre-season all-America team.
Patterson, a junior from Rowlett, Texas, was voted to the NCBWA first team. Harris, a junior from Slidell, La., was a third-team selection.
Patterson earned first-team all-SEC honors last season as the Tigers’ primary designated hitter, batting .350 (92-for-263) with 20 doubles, one triple, 16 homers and 51 RBI. He was voted to the NCAA Baton Rouge Regional all-tournament team, and he was named the state’s Newcomer of the Year by the Louisiana Sportswriters Association.
Harris, also a 2003 first-team all-SEC selection, tied Patterson for the team lead in home runs with 16. Harris hit .332 (70-for-211) with 16 doubles and 62 RBI, and he was voted second-team all-Louisiana by the LSWA.
Patterson and Harris are two of eight returning position starters for LSU, which won the 2003 Southeastern Conference title and advanced to the College World Series. The Tigers finished No. 5 in the final Baseball America magazine poll.
LSU opens the 2004 season Feb. 13 at Central Florida.
The entire NCBWA pre-season all-America team features a group of standouts representing 20 different Division I conferences.
Rice pitchers Jeff Niemann (17-0, 1.70 ERA last season), Wade Townsend (11-2, 2.20) and Phillip Humber (11-3, 3.30) have become the first trio of starting hurlers from the same squad to earn preseason first-team recognition from the writers’ group.
The Owls trio is not alone in their multiple talents (Townsend had five saves out of the bullpen before taking on fulltime starters’ duties for Coach Wayne Graham’s 58-12 squad) on the first unit. Long Beach State right-hander Jared Weaver (13-3, 1.99 ERA, younger brother of the New York Yankees’ Jeff Weaver) joins the other first-team starters, along with Jason Windsor (11-2, 1.98) of Cal State Fullerton as one of the most formidable group of selections in the brief history of preseason NCBWA All-America squads.
Relief aces Steven Register (NCAA-high 16 saves in 2003) of Auburn and Huston Street (15 saves, Division I’s lowest ERA at 1.33) of Texas team with North Carolina State’s Joey Devine (13 saves) as the top closers.
Street is a repeat performer from the 2003 preseason and postseason NCBWA All-America components, while Register returns from the ’03 postseason A-A team. Returning first team 1B Billy Becher of New Mexico State leads an outstanding group of hitters on the first team with 32 home runs last season. Becher’s .420 batting average also tops the first-team squad-just ahead of returning All-American SS Dustin Pedroia of Arizona State with a .404 norm for the Pacific-10 Conference power.
The No. 1 position players and utility men/designated hitters combined for 103 home runs and 531 RBI last season while Big East Conference Player of the Year candidate Steve Sollman of Notre Dame returns with a .370 average. 3B Michael Griffin, a Baylor junior who also can play the outfield in a pinch, nabbed first team All-Big 12 Conference laurels with Street in ’03.
Southland Conference All-America OF Jordan Foster of Lamar chimed in with a .417 average and 71 RBI, while Southern Cal catcher Jeff Clement (21 home runs as a freshman) and Stanford OF Sam Fuld (three-time participant in the NCAA World Series under Coach Mark Marquess) join Patterson and Ole Miss pitcher-utility star Stephen Head, solid members of the select squad from the Southeastern Conference.
Rice outfielder Austin Davis, of the school’s first NCAA team champion in any sport, gives the Owls a team-high four preseason All-American selections, on the three units. Arizona State 1B Jeff Larish joins teammate Pedroia and Conference USA stalwarts OF Darryl Lawhorn of East Carolina and relief standout Austin Tubb of Southern Miss among some of the other key honorees.
Princeton bullpen star Thomas Pauly (5-1, five saves, 0.92 ERA in 15 appearances) of the Ivy League and North Carolina State starters Mike Rogers and Vern Sterry (combined 22 victories) of the Atlantic Coast Conference are just a few of the chosen ones on the pre-2004 NCBWA second unit.
The SEC had the most preseason All-American selections with nine, while the Pac-10 had seven and the ACC and Big 12 each produced six.