Written for the LSWA
BATON ROUGE ? LSU’s strong finish to the regular season and its win in the Southeastern Conference Tournament impressed enough voters to allow the Tigers to take four of the five top honors on the 2008 All-Louisiana College Baseball Team as chosen by the Louisiana Sports Writers Association.
The team was selected based on nominations by the baseball sports information directors of the state and then voted on by a panel of LSWA members. All stats and voting was based on totals through the playing of conference tournaments and did not include results or stats accumulated during NCAA post-season play.
LSU’s Blake Dean was named the Hitter of the Year, while DJ LeMahieu won an extremely close vote for Freshman of the Year. Matt Clark won the Newcomer of the Year honor as the LSU star was the top first-year non-freshman player in Louisiana and second-year Tiger Coach Paul Mainieri captured 18 of a possible 20 votes to win Coach of the Year honors.
UNO pitcher Bryan Cryer won the Pitcher of the Year honors.
Dean, a sophomore from Crestview, Fla., was named the Most Valuable Player of the SEC Tournament after batting .438 (7-16) in four games with three homers, nine RBI and five runs. In the 20 games of the long win streak that were eligible for discussion in this team, Dean batting .420 (34-81) with eight homes and 25 RBI. He led the team in RBI with 57 and was second on the Tiger team with 16 home runs. He hit .346 for the year.
Cryer earned Sun Belt Pitcher of the Year honors after he finished the year tied for the NCAA lead with 12 wins in a 12-1 record with a 3.00 ERA. Cryer, a senior from Denham Springs, had 96 strikeouts in 96 innings with just 23 walks. He had a one hitter with a career-high 12 strikeouts in a May 2 victory over Florida Atlantic. He finished as the school career strikeout leader with over 330 punch outs.
LSU’s LeMahieu edged out third baseman Rob Segedin of Tulane and catcher Andrew Brouillette of LSU-Shreveport in a very close vote for freshman of the year. LeMahieu had a 12-game hit streak in April, the longest streak of the year by a Tiger. He hit .367 (29-79) during LSU’s 20-game win streak with eight doubles, one homer and 13 RBI. He hit .431 (31-72) with runners in scoring position and finished the year hitting .338 with 11 doubles, five home runs and 38 RBI.
Clark, a junior college transfer from Riverside (Calif.) Community College, earned SEC All-Tournament honors after hitting three homers with five RBI. He had the game-winning walk-off two-run homer in the top of the ninth inning to beat Kentucky on May 4 and hit .462 (6-13) in the three-game Florida series, with three homers and four RBI. His grand slam against Michigan State on March 5 was at the time the first grand slam by an LSU player since March, 2005. For the season, Clark hit .328 with 13 doubles, 22 home runs and 52 RBI and a .727 slugging percentage.
In winning Coach of the Year honors, Mainieri in his second season guided the Tigers to a 43-16-1 record in winning the SEC Western Division and the SEC Tournament. By the end of the regular season, he had directed LSU to a 20-game win streak and his team posted the highest GPA in the history of the baseball program.
On the first team pitching staff along with Cryer, who was a unanimous selection as one of the four pitchers, were Jared Bradford of LSU, Shooter Hunt of Tulane and Hunter Moody of Louisiana-Lafayette. Josh Vander Hey of New Orleans is the first team catcher with the infield consisting of Clark at first base, Kyle Suire of Louisiana Monroe at second, Ben Soignier of Louisiana-Monroe at shortstop and Josh Borges of Loyola (New Orleans) at third base. In the first-team outfield are Joey Butler of New Orleans, Dexter Fontenot of Louisiana-Monroe and Anthony Scelfo of Tulane. Dean of LSU was the first team SEC with Jericho Jones of Louisiana Tech the player chosen by the most votes at the utility position.
All-Louisiana College Baseball Team
Presented by the Louisiana Sports Writers Association
Stats Through Conclusion of Conference Tournaments
First Team
Pos/Name/School/Class/Hometown/Stats-Notes
P/Bryan Cryer/UNO/Sr./Denham Springs, La./12-1, 3.00 ERA, Sun Belt POY
P/Jared Bradford/ LSU/Sr./Hueytown, Ala./10-4, 4.09 ERA, 72 Ks
P/Shooter Hunt/Tulane/Jr./Wyckoff, N.J/9-3, 2.45 ERA, C-USA POY
P/Hunter Moody/Louisiana-Lafayette/Sr./Clinton, La./9-2, 3.26 ERA, 76 Ks
C/Josh Vander Hey/UNO/Sr./Cypress, Texas/.357 BA, 12 HRs, 71 RBI
1B/Matt Clark/LSU/Jr./Fontana, Calif./.328 BA, 22 HR, 55 RBI
2B/Kyle Suire/Louisiana-Monroe/Sr./Gonzales, La./.367 BA, 16 HR, 65 RBI
SS/Ben Soignier/Louisiana-Monroe/Jr./West Monroe, La./.394 BA, 16 HR, 46 RBI
3B/Josh Borges/Loyola (New Orleans)/ Sr./Belle Chasse, La./.430 BA, 13 HR, 67 RBI
OF/Joey Butler/UNO/Sr./Moss Point, Miss./.349 BA, 11 HR, 58 RBI
OF/Dexter Fontenot/Louisiana-Monroe/Sr./Gonzales, La./.364 BA, 12 HR, 67 RBI
OF/Anthony Scelfo/Tulane/Jr./New Orleans, La./.324 BA, 12 HR, 51 RBI
DH/Blake Dean/LSU/So./Crestview, Fla./.346 BA, 16 HR, 57 RBI, SEC Tourn. MVP
Util/Jericho Jones/Louisiana Tech/Jr./Corinth, Texas/.364, 13 HR, 64 RBI
Special Awards
Hitter of the Year ? Blake Dean, LSU
Voting ? Dean 11, Ben Soignier 4, Anthony Scelfo 3, Jericho Jones 1, Mike Jaworski 1
Pitcher of the Year ? Bryan Cryer, UNO
Voting ? Cryer 10, Shooter Hunt 6, Hunter Moody 1, Wade Miley 1, Jared Bradford 1, no vote 1
Freshman of the Year ? DJ LeMahieu, LSU
Voting ? LeMahieu 5, Rob Segedin, 4, Andrew Brouillette 3, Cass Hargis 2, Justin Kraft 2, Matt Goulas 2, Frazier Hall 1, Micah Gibbs 1.
Newcomer of the Year ? Matt Clark, LSU
Voting ? Clark 13, Josh Vander Hey 4, Taylor Freeman 1, no vote 2
Coach of The Year ? Paul Mainieri, LSU
Voting ? Mainieri 18, Jeff Schexnaider 2
Second Team All-Louisiana
P ? Louis Coleman, LSU, Jr., Schlater, Miss. (6-0, 1.49 ERA); Victor Hernandez, LSU-Shreveport, Sr., San Juan Del Rio, Mexico (11-1, 3.50 ERA); Wade Miley, Southeastern Louisiana, Jr. Loranger, La. (7-3, 3.90 ERA); Ryan Verdugo, LSU, Jr. Lake Stevens, Wash. (8-2, 3.61 ERA).
C ? Taylor Freeman, McNeese, So., Carney, Okla. (.372 BA, 52 RBI)
1B ? Mike Jaworski, Northwestern State, Sr., Houston, Texas (.332 BA, 46 RBI)
2B ? Johnny Giavotella, UNO, Jr., Harahan, La. (.354 BA, 51 RBI)
SS ? Ty Summerlin, Southeastern Louisiana, Jr., Vancleave, Miss. (.342 BA, 60 RBI)
3B ? T. J. Baxter, UNO, Sr., Point Pleasure, N.J. (.322 BA, 60 RBI)
OF ? Torey Brown, Southern, Sr., Starkville, Miss. (.378 BA, 38 RBI); Jared Mitchell, LSU, So., New Iberia, La. (.296 BA, 23 RBI) ; Brent Smith, Grambling, Jr., Shreveport, La. (.365 BA, 43 RBI).
DH ? Jeff Ledet, LSU-Shreveport, Sr., Raceland, La. (.340 BA, 39 RBI)
UTIL — Jeff Lanning, UNO, Jr., Anekey, Iowa (417 BA)
Honorable Mention All-Louisiana
P ? Matt Petiton, Tulane; C ? Andrew Brouillette, LSU-S; Micah Gibbs, LSU; Anthony Jones, Northwestern State; 1B ? Nick Schwaner, UNO; SS ? DJ LeMahieu, LSU; 3B ? Rob Segedin, Tulane; OF ? Adam Cobb, Louisiana Tech; Leon Landry ? LSU.