BATON ROUGE — LSU reliever Matty Ott was named Wednesday as one of five finalists for the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Stopper of the Year Award.
The other finalists include NCAA saves leader Addison Reed of San Diego State, Kyle Bellamy of Miami (Fla.), Jake Hale of Ohio State and Eric Pettis of UC Irvine. All five relief aces helped their respective teams advance to the 64-team field of the 2009 NCAA Baseball Tournament.
Ott, the 2009 SEC Co-Freshman of the Year, has posted a school-record 15 saves this season. The right-hander from Metairie, La., has a 3-2 record and a 2.22 ERA with four walks and 62 strikeouts in 44.2 innings.
Ott was also named Wednesday to the Collegiate Baseball magazine First-Team Freshman All-America squad. LSU has produced a first-team Freshman All-American for four straight years and for the ninth time in the past 10 seasons.
Meanwhile, LSU coach Paul Mainieri said Wednesday that sophomore right-hander Anthony Ranaudo will start Game 1 of the NCAA Super Regional at 6 p.m. Friday versus Rice.
Ranaudo, the Most Outstanding Player of last week’s NCAA Baton Rouge Regional, is 9-3 this season with a 3.09 ERA and 138 strikeouts in 102 innings. Ranaudo was masterful last Saturday versus Baylor in the regional, limiting the Bears to one earned run on three hits in nine innings with three walks and 14 strikeouts.
The 14 strikeouts represented the most by an LSU pitcher in an NCAA Tournament game since 1993, when Brett Laxton struck out 16 Wichita State batters in the College World Series final.