LSU Gold

Jones, McCune Earn All-America Honors

by Bill Franques
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Jones, McCune Earn All-America Honors

BATON ROUGE – LSU second baseman JaCoby Jones and pitcher Kurt McCune were named Tuesday to the 2011 Baseball America magazine second-team Freshmen all-America squad.

LSU is the only SEC school with more than one player on the Baseball America first and second teams. Arkansas, Florida and Vanderbilt have one representative each on the Freshmen all-America squads.

Jones, a product of Richton (Miss.) High School, batted .338 (66-for-195) in his first season at LSU with 11 doubles, one triple, four homers, 32 RBI, 36 runs and 12 stolen bases.

Jones, a Freshmen All-SEC selection and the Louisiana Freshman of the Year, was a .397 (23-for-58) hitter with runners in scoring position. He batted .426 (23-for-54) in the Tigers’ final 15 games of the season with five doubles, one homer, nine RBI and 14 runs scored.

Jones was named SEC Freshman of the Week on Feb. 28 after batting a blistering .636 (7-for-11) in four games (Feb. 22-27).

McCune, a native of Norco, La. and a product of Destrehan High School, was LSU’s No. 1 starting pitcher through most of the 2011 season. He posted a 7-3 mark and a 3.31 ERA in 14 starts, recording 68 strikeouts in 89.2 innings and limiting opponents to a .221 batting average.

McCune finished the season No. 4 in the SEC in opponent batting average,  No. 6 in innings pitched and No. 8 in wins.

He was named SEC Pitcher of the Week on February 21 after a remarkable collegiate debut against Wake Forest, firing a no-hitter for 5.1 innings before allowing an infield single. McCune worked six shutout innings for the victory, allowing just one hit with two walks and seven strikeouts.

LSU has had a player named to a Freshmen All-America team in five of the past six seasons.