Aaron Bray was named the 2006 Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Year |
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Nine 49ers Honored With Atlantic 10 Baseball Awards
May 23, 2006
Philadelphia - The Charlotte 49ers baseball team had nine players honored with All-Atlantic 10 Conference awards on Tuesday, including Rookie of the Year Aaron Bray, Student-Athlete of the Year Mike Ambrose, and first-team selections Ambrose and Spencer Steedley. Voting was conducted among the league's 14 head coaches, with the awards announcement made on the eve of the 2006 Atlantic 10 Baseball Championships.
Including the first, second, honorable mention, and all-rookie teams, Charlotte had the most players honored by the league this season. The 49ers were followed by Saint Louis (6), Rhode Island and Dayton (5 each), St. Bonaventure and Richmond (4 each).
Ambrose (SS) and Steedley (OF) were named to the First Team All-Conference squad, while Cory Lane (2B), Aaron Bray (3B), Chris Taylor (DH) and O'Brien Taylor (OF) were Second Team selections. Starting pitchers Derek McDaid and Adam Mills were Honorable Mention choices.
Additionally, Bray was chosen Rookie of the Year and was joined on the All-Rookie team by left-handed pitcher Kyle Pfirrman.
The nine players honored by the league were the most ever in the Charlotte baseball program's history. The previous high was eight in 1998 (Conference USA).
Ambrose and Steedley become Charlotte's first First-Team all-league selections since John Maine was the Conference USA Pitcher of the Year in 2001.
Click here for the Atlantic 10's Full List of Teams in PDF format (includes stats).
Each all-conference team consisted of one player at each position, including DH, along with one reliever and two starting pitcher. There were also three "at-large" spots, available to the next three-highest vote-getters at any position, to bring each all-conference team up to 15 players. Honorable mention awardwinners appeared on a pre-determined percentage of the coaches' ballots but did not make either first- or second-team all-conference. The Academic All-Conference team, chosen by the league's sports information offices, consisted of 10 players regardless of position.
Senior Mike Ambrose was one of two shortstops on the First Team All-Atlantic 10 squad, and was joined by junior outfielder Spencer Steedley.
Steedley led the league in runs scored (60) and RBI (62) outright, and tied for the league lead with 13 home runs and 43 walks. He was third in slugging percentage and seventh in on-base percentage.
The league's only two-time Player of the Week, Ambrose was third among the league's leaders with a .373 batting average. He ranked third in RBI (51), fifth in stolen bases (16), and sixth in runs scored (48). He is among the top 100 in the NCAA in batting.
In addition to his first-team All-Atlantic 10 honor, the league's sports information offices voted Ambrose the A-10 Baseball Student-Athlete of the Year. That is the league's highest academic honor in the sport of baseball. Ambrose carries a 3.9 GPA in psychology, is an Academic All-America candidate and is already an Academic All-District awardwinner.
Four 49ers were chosen Second Team All-Atlantic 10.
Cory Lane was the selection at second base. He was third on the 49ers team with a .364 batting average, and reached base in 50 of 54 games this season. Lane was second among the league's leaders in scoring (58 runs) while driving in 39 to rank 16th. He was eighth in batting average, stole 14 bases and was the eighth-toughest to strike out in the league.
Aaron Bray was a second-team selection at third base in his freshman campaign, and was the league's Rookie of the Year. A five-time Rookie of the Week, Bray was on base in 53 of 54 games this season and ranked second among the league leaders in runs, third in hits and stolen bases, and fifth in batting.
Second Team designated hitter Chris Taylor was eighth among the A-10 leaders with 47 RBI, and ninth with 16 doubles. He had 19 multi-hit and 14 multi-RBI games this season, and opened the season on a 17-game hitting streak.
O'Brien Taylor batted .331 overall and .373 in Conference games to earn a spot in the outfield on the Second Team All-Atlantic 10 squad. He was 12th overall in runs scored (42), 10th in on-base percentage (.436), and 21st in batting average for all games.
Starting pitchers Derek McDaid and Adam Mills were both named Honorable Mention All-Atlantic 10.
McDaid was second among the league's leaders with nine wins this season, and was sixth in ERA (2.45). He also led the league with five complete games.
Mills led the A-10 in innings pitched (106), strikeouts (105) and strikeout-to-walk ratio, and was second in batters struck out looking.
Along with his second-team all-conference award, Bray was the league's Rookie of the Year and one of two 49ers on the All-Rookie team.
Joining him on the All-Rookie team was left-hander Kyle Pfirrman. He had the best ERA (2.22) of any pitcher in the A-10 that had at least 10 relief appearances, and had a 1.05 ERA as a reliever this season.
The 2006 Atlantic 10 Conference Baseball Championships get underway on Wednesday, May 23 at noon. No. 4 Charlotte takes on No. 5 Saint Louis in the tournament's opening game.
2006 ATLANTIC 10 CONFERENCE YEARLY AWARDS
Player of the Year: Brian Pellegrini, St. Bonaventure
Pitcher of the Year: Steve Holmes, Rhode Island
Rookie of the Year: Aaron Bray, Charlotte
Coach of the Year: Larry Sudbrook, St. Bonaventure
Student-Athlete of the Year: Mike Ambrose, Charlotte
First Team All-Atlantic 10
1B Brian Pellegrini, St. Bonaventure
2B Galen Schumm, Dayton
SS Mike Ambrose, Charlotte
SS Mike Massa, Dayton
3B Dan Brady, Temple
OF Joe Rizzo, St. Bonaventure
OF Greg Smith, Fordham
OF Spencer Steedley, Charlotte
OF Ben Zeskind, Richmond
C Rich Prall, La Salle
C Bill Musselman, Saint Louis
DH Greg Rodgers, Saint Louis
SP Steve Holmes, Rhode Island
SP Derrik Lutz, George Washington
RP Craig Rohren, Dayton
Second Team All-Atlantic 10
1B Ryan Cunningham, Rhode Island
1B Joe Mahoney, Richmond
2B Cory Lane, Charlotte
SS Mike O'Malley, Rhode Island
3B Cameron Brown, Richmond
3B Aaron Bray, Charlotte
OF Bryan Chandler, Dayton
OF Johnny Sweeney, Saint Louis
OF O'Brien Taylor, Charlotte
C Josh Nestor, Rhode Island
DH Chris Taylor, Charlotte
DH Zach Zaneski, Rhode Island
SP Ryan Bird, Saint Louis
SP John Zinnicker, St. Bonaventure
RP Matt Agostinelli, St. Bonaventure
Honorable Mention All-Atlantic 10
OF Charlie Kruer, George Washington
OF Eric Morrison, Duquesne
SP Derek McDaid, Charlotte
SP Adam Mills, Charlotte
SP Luke Trubee, Dayton
All-Rookie Team
OF Jamie Abercrombie, Temple
3B Aaron Bray, Charlotte
3B Cameron Brown, Richmond
DH Mike Carroll, Duquesne
2B/3B Tom Pinnell, Saint Louis
2B Adam Tempesta, Massachusetts
P Drew Gerhart, La Salle
P Kyle Pfirrman, Charlotte
P Dave Sever, Saint Louis
Academic All-Conference Team
Mike Ambrose, Charlotte
Joe Berletic, Duquesne
Ryan Bird, Saint Louis
Scott Maiolo, Duquesne
Derek Mechling, Duquesne
Randy Moley, St. Bonaventure
Wayne Russo, Rhode Island
Johnny Sweeney, Saint Louis
Tom Venedam, Rhode Island
Dan Waters, La Salle
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