Baseball: WVU Takes Major Awards
May 21, 2003 09:21 PM | General
By Adam Zundell for MSNsportsNET.com
May 21, 2003
 Rine |
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 Posluszny |
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 Van Zant |
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BRIDGEWATER, N.J. – West Virginia took home three of the four major awards handed out at the BIG EAST baseball awards banquet held Wednesday night. Jarod Rine was named player of the year, Stan Posluszny was named rookie of the year and Head Coach Greg Van Zant was honored as the coach of the year.
Jarod Rine became the first Mountaineer in school history to be named player of the year. Rine batted .418 and had a conference-best 67 total bases in league games. Rine ranked among the league leaders in home runs (6), doubles (8), runs (25), on-base percentage (.472) and slugging percentage (.684). Overall, he hit .390 with eight home runs and 31 RBI.
Virginia Tech second baseman Marc Tugwell was co-player of the year.
Posluszy also became the first WVU player to earn rookie of the year honors. He ranked 10th in conference play with 21 RBI in 17 games, the highest number for any league newcomer. In all games, the redshirt freshman ranked fourth in the WVU lineup with a .350 average. Posluszny finished the regular season with five home runs, 27 RBI and a .662 slugging percentage.
Van Zant was honored as the coach of the year for the second time in his career. He led the Mountaineers, picked to finish near the bottom of the league in the preseason poll, to the most BIG EAST wins in school history (18) and a 35-17 overall record—good for second place in the regular season. During the year, WVU posted a win at No.24 Tennessee and was the first team to win a series at Notre Dame since 1998.
In addition to the major awards, the Mountaineers were well-represented on the league’s all-conference teams. Rine was the only WVU player to be named to the first team, becoming just the third Mountaineer to do so. Pitcher Zac Cline, first baseman Kurtis Clinton, third baseman Tim McCabe and outfielder Lee Fritz all earned second team honors. Outfielder Jake Serfass was named to the third team.
The six WVU players named to the all-conference teams is the most in school history.
WVU will open the tournament tomorrow at 7 p.m., against Notre Dame. The Mountaineers will likely face Chris Niesel (9-1), who was named the league’s pitcher of the year, which means the first at-bat will pit the conference’s pitcher and player of the year.
West Virginia is expected to counter with right-hander Shawn Miller (6-2).
The Big East Conference contributed to this story.
