2008 Woodie Awards
C-USA announces baseball All-Conference awards
Seven ECU players make the cut
ECU SID
Issue date: 5/21/08 Section: Sports
|
Senior Corey Kemp was named Player of the Year, right-handed pitcher Seth Maness grabbed Freshman of the Year honors and junior right-hander Justin Bristow earned Newcomer of the Year recognition.
Tulane right-hander Shooter Hunt was named Pitcher of the Year and Rice skipper Wayne Graham took home his third consecutive Keith LeClair Conference USA Coach of the Year award.
Voting was done by a panel consisting of each head coach, each team's sports information director and a media representative from each city.
Kemp has been one of the most productive hitters in Conference USA all season long, leading the league in home runs (15) and RBI (66), while batting .358 with a .637 slugging percentage. He has produced 20 multi-hit and 17 multi-RBI games and has produced 11 game-winning RBI. In 24 conference games, he batted .319 with 10 homers and 38 RBI.
A finalist for the Johnny Bench Award, Kemp was a semifinalist for the Dick Howser Trophy and became the second Pirate catcher in three years to earn first team All-C-USA honors. He becomes the second Pirate to take home Player of the Year honors following Ryan Jones (2004).
Maness became just the second freshman in East Carolina history to win nine games, tying for the C-USA lead in victories. Maness is 9-1 on the season with a 2.79 ERA, third-lowest in the league. He has a team-best 75 strikeouts and has walked just 17 batters in 84 innings pitched. Maness had two games in which he did not allow an earned run and had five outings in which he allowed one walk or less walks.
Maness is the second Pirate to be named C-USA Freshman of the Year following Darryl Lawhorn's selection in 2002. Lawhorn was also named Co-National Freshman of the Year by Collegiate Baseball.
Bristow, a transfer from Auburn, has had a highly successful first season in a Pirate uniform, posting an 8-2 record with a 3.05 ERA and 73 strikeouts with 22 walks. He has tossed a pair of complete-game shutouts and has allowed just three home runs in 82.2 innings pitched.
Joining first-teamers Kemp and Maness as an All C-USA performer was senior outfielder Harrison Eldridge, while junior Stephen Batts was named second-team all-conference alongside Bristow.
Be the first to comment on this story