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Four Earn Big 12 All-Tournament Honors
May 28, 2017 08:10 PM | Baseball
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Four West Virginia University baseball players have been named to the Big 12 Conference All-Tournament Team, as senior Jackson Cramer, sophomores Darius Hill and Braden Zarbnisky and freshman Isaiah Kearns were recognized.
WVU’s four All-Tournament honors is the second-most amongst Big 12 schools, behind only Oklahoma State, with seven on the 15-member team. OSU won the Big 12 Championship with a 6-5 win over Texas this afternoon in Oklahoma City.
The Mountaineers have earned four all-tournament accolades for the second consecutive year, after receiving one total in their first three years in the conference.
Cramer’s week was highlighted by a five-RBI, two-hit day in WVU’s 12-7, 10-inning win over No. 3 Texas Tech on May 26. Cramer’s five RBIs is a WVU record at the Big 12 Championship and one shy of tying the conference record. Against TTU, Cramer scored the game-tying run in the ninth inning on an RBI single and three-base error, and followed it with a three-RBI triple in the 10th inning. Earlier in the week in Oklahoma City, Cramer was named to the All-Big 12 Honorable Mention Team.
In West Virginia’s four games at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark, Hill led the Mountaineers with eight hits and three walks. He hit .471 with a pair of doubles, three RBIs and a .588 slugging percentage. Hill drove in the eventual winning run in WVU’s 11-1 win over Baylor on May 24 and had three multi-hit games. Hill joined Cramer on the All-Big 12 Honorable Mention Team on May 23.
Zarbnisky backed up his All-Big 12 First Team honors with a strong week at the plate and on the mound. At the plate, he hit .375 with six hits and three RBIs, including at least one hit in three of the four games. Zarbnisky had four hits on May 25 against Oklahoma State, the most by a Mountaineer in a Big 12 Championship game. On the mound, he earned the win on May 26 against No. 3 Texas Tech, pitching the final 4.0 innings and allowing one run on four hits with three strikeouts.
Kearns was dominant on the mound in WVU’s 11-1 run-rule win over Baylor on May 24. In an 8.0-inning complete game, Kearns allowed just one run on three hits with six strikeouts. He earned the win in the first game of the tournament and did not walk a batter. Additionally, Kearns launched a home run on May 26 against Texas Tech, a solo shot in the eighth inning that sparked a two-run, game-tying rally in the ninth inning before a six-run 10th to win it for the Mountaineers.
After going 2-2 at the Big 12 Championship and recording a 34-24 record, West Virginia awaits the NCAA Tournament Selection Show, set for Monday, May 29, at noon ET, on ESPN2. The Mountaineers hope to earn a berth in the tournament for the first time since 1996.
For more information on the Mountaineers, follow WVU Baseball on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and visit WVUsports.com.
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