Baseball: Postseason Awards Announced
July 12, 2006 01:04 PM | General
July 12, 2006
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia University baseball coach Greg Van Zant has announced the postseason awards for the 2006 season.
Senior outfielders Casey Bowling and Stan Posluszny tied for the position player MVP award. Junior right-handed pitcher Dan Leatherman was named the team’s MVP of the pitching staff and redshirt freshman centerfielder Adam White earned the team’s rookie of the year award.
Bowling batted .403 with 15 doubles, seven home runs and 43 RBI en route to being named to the all-BIG EAST first team. The Chapmanville, W.Va., native became just the seventh Mountaineer to bat over .400 since 1990. He also was only starter not to commit an error all season. Bowling currently plays for the River City Rascals in the Independent League.
First team all-BIG EAST outfielder Posluszny was known for clutch hitting and finished his career ranked in the top 10 of 16 different offensive categories in school history. He now owns the school record for RBI (174), doubles (58) and extra base-hits (93). His 33 career home runs also ranks him second all-time at WVU.
The Aliquippa, Pa., native was selected by the Seattle Mariners in the 34th round of June’s Major League draft after hitting 10 home runs and driving in 60 RBI in 2006.
Leatherman highlighted the WVU pitching staff with a 7-2 record, 5.12 ERA and 67 strikeouts for the Mountaineers in 2006. The former Frederick Community College transfer logged 77.1 innings of work while earning four saves from the bullpen. The hard-throwing right-hander recently signed a free agent contract with the Minnesota Twins.
White, a Louisville Slugger 2006 freshman All-American, filled the void in centerfield left by former three-time all-conference selection Lee Fritz. He batted .368 with six doubles, three triples, one home run and 27 RBI from the bottom of the lineup, earning second team all-BIG EAST honors.
The rookie set a school single season record with 14 sacrifice hits and also led the Mountaineers with 19 steals, surpassing the team’s total of 18 in all of 2005. White currently leads the Waynesboro Generals with a .344 batting average and was named to the Valley Baseball League’s South all-star team this summer.
