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WVU Earns Program-Record 12 All-Big 12 Honors
May 23, 2017 02:06 PM | Baseball
OKLAHOMA CITY – The West Virginia University baseball team has earned 12 All-Big 12 honors, the most in program history, headlined by All-Big 12 First Team honoree Braden Zarbnisky.
Along with Zarbnisky’s first team recognition, juniors Kyle Davis and BJ Myers and sophomore Michael Grove were named to the second team. Senior Jackson Cramer, sophomores Cole Austin, Jimmy Galusky, Kyle Gray and Darius Hill and freshmen Sam Kessler and Brandon White earned honorable mention accolades, while Alek Manoah is on the All-Freshman Team.
The 12 total Big 12 honors is the most for the Mountaineers since joining the league in 2013, besting the 10 earned last season. Additionally, WVU’s seven honorable mention accolades is also a program record, while the three second team honorees matches the three earned in 2014.
In total, WVU’s entire infield and outfield were honored and three starting pitchers and one relief pitcher were recognized in addition to Zarbnisky’s First Team accolades as a utility player.
Davis is recognized with a year-end award by the Big 12 Conference for the fourth time in his career, after earning second team and freshman team accolades in 2015 and honorable mention honors in 2016. Cramer and Hill earn their third awards, after Cramer was named to the second team in both 2015 and 2016, while Hill was recognized with second team and freshman team accolades in 2016. Galusky and Grove were named to the honorable mention team a season ago, and Myers was recognized on the freshman team in 2015.
As the All-Big 12 First Team’s utility player, Zarbnisky consistently produced both on the mound and with the bat. He started 20 games and played in 38, primarily as a designated hitter, while also making 21 relief appearances. While leading the team with six saves and five wins with a 2.67 ERA, the sophomore posted a .333 batting average with 31 hits and went a perfect 11-of-11 on the basepaths.
His six saves ranked seventh in the Big 12, while he tied for second with four wins in Big 12 play and was third in the league with eight stolen bases.
Davis led the team with a .320 batting average, which ranked 10th in the Big 12, and he also led the team with 65 hits, which was seventh in the conference, along with his 107 total bases. Davis finished second on the Mountaineers with 40 RBIs and eight home runs and posted a team-best .527 slugging percentage and 12 doubles while walking 30 times.
Grove made nine starts as a sophomore, earning a 2.87 ERA in 47.0 innings pitched. He struck out 61 and walked just 15. In Big 12 action, the Wheeling, West Virginia, native finished second in the Big 12 with a 1.98 ERA in five starts and held the opposition to a .156 batting average, just .002 shy of leading the league. Grove’s marquee start came on April 10, against Kansas, when he took a perfect game into the eighth inning. He retired the first 23 batters he faced and struck out 12 batters while allowing just one hit with no walks in 8.0 innings. He was rewarded with Big 12 and NCBWA National Pitcher of the Week accolades after the win.
Myers leads the Big 12 with 87 innings pitched, having started all 14 Friday night games for the Mountaineers. The junior is seventh in the Big 12 with 70 strikeouts, and is one of six Big 12 pitchers, three in Big 12 action, to have thrown a complete game. Myers owns a 3.14 ERA in Big 12 play, which ranks seventh in the conference, and his 46 Big 12 strikeouts is third in the league.
West Virginia earned the No. 4 seed in the 2017 Phillips 66 Big 12 Baseball Championship and opens postseason play on Wednesday, May 24, at 10 a.m. ET/9 a.m. CT, against No. 5 Baylor in Oklahoma City.
The annual event will be held at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark from May 24-28. Wednesday through Saturday’s contests will be televised on FCS, FSSW+ or FSMW+, while Sunday’s championship game will air live on FOX Sports Networks and ROOT SPORTS Pittsburgh. All games will also be available on FOX Sports GO or through the Xfinity app to authenticated subscribers.
The complete Big 12 Championship bracket can be found here, while additional information about the championship, including details about tickets, Oklahoma City and Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark can be found at Big12Sports.com.
For more information on the Mountaineers, follow WVU Baseball on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and visit WVUsports.com.
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