Thursday, June 03, 2010

TUCSON, Ariz. – Florida Gulf Coast lefty Chris Sale earned National Player of the Year honors from Collegiate Baseball newspaper to lead three Atlantic Sun standouts who earned recognition.

ETSU slugger Paul Hoilman (1st Team All-American) and Mercer third-baseman Jacob Tanis (3rd Team) joined Sale on the prestigious list sponsored by Louisville Slugger. In Sale and Hoilman, the A-Sun joined a select group of four conferences (Atlantic Coast, Big Ten and Big West) as the only leagues with multiple First-Team All Americans.

Sale, the A-Sun Pitcher of the Year, finished his junior campaign with an 11-0 record and 2.01 earned run average. The hard-throwing southpaw fanned an NCAA-leading 146 batters through the conclusion of conference tournament play. Even more impressive, Sale walked just 14 batters in 103.0 innings of work for an amazing strikeout-to-walk ratio of 10.4-to-1 for the year. The Lakeland, Fla., native is also a semifinalist for the USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award and a finalist for the National Pitcher of the Year Award.

The last five pitchers to earn National Player of the Year honors from Collegiate Baseball have been highly regarded prospects and three have been playoff heroes already for their clubs: 2001 – Mark Prior; 2004 – Jered Weaver; 2006 – Wes Roemer; 2007 – David Price; 2009 – Stephen Strasburg.

Numerous draft projections place Sale as a definite first-round selection that could go as high as fourth overall to the Kansas City Royals.

Hoilman, also a semifinalist for the USA Baseball Golden, nearly won the A-Sun Triple Crown on his way to being tabbed Conference Player of the Year. The first-baseman set eight ETSU single season records during his remarkable junior campaign and ranked in the top-25 nationally in 10 statistical categories. A native of Johnson City, Tenn., Hoilman hit .421 while blasting 25 homers and driving in 84 runs.

Tanis led Mercer to its first NCAA Regional appearance with the Bears sweep through the Atlantic Sun Championship last week. The Tournament MVP spent much of the year among the nation’s leaders in RBI and currently ranks second with 86 heading into the NCAA Championship. The Peachtree City, Ga., native hit .382 and hammered 22 homers in his sophomore campaign.

The 17-man first team is chosen by performances up to regional playoffs and picked by the staff of Collegiate Baseball newspaper. This marks the 14th year that Louisville Slugger has sponsored the Division I All-Americans.