LUBBOCK, Texas — Kentucky baseball standouts Sawyer Carroll, Collin Cowgill, and Scott Green have each been named to the preseason 2008 Brooks Wallace National Player of the Year Award Watch List, the College Baseball Foundation announced Friday afternoon.
The Brooks Wallace Award is annually given to the top player in college baseball in conjunction with the annual College Baseball Hall of Fame?s induction festivities. The 2008 award will be held Thursday, July 3, in the United Spirit Arena on the campus of Texas Tech University.
Carroll, a senior from Henryetta, Okla., had a monster season in 2007 after transferring to UK from Seminole Community College. The 6-foot-4, 210-pound first baseman and outfielder batted a stellar .350 in 2007, with an SEC-best 23 doubles, two triples, three home runs, and 56 RBI. In June, Carroll was picked in the 18th-round by the Washington Nationals in the MLB Draft.
Cowgill, a 2007 preseason All-American, joins the preseason watch list for the second consecutive year, after being named to the 2007 Preseason Brooks Wallace Award Watch List after helping lead UK to its first Southeastern Conference Championship in school history in 2006. During the SEC title run, Cowgill batted .298 with 16 homers and 61 RBI, helping to anchor a potent UK lineup that set the school record for most runs scored in a season (500). Cowgill missed the entire 2007 season due to injury, taking a redshirt after having surgery on an injured hand. The centerfielder returned to form during the summer, earning Cape Cod League All-Star honors while leading his CCL team to its second consecutive league crown. Cowgill batted .290 with four doubles, four triples, two home runs, and 20 RBI, swiping 10 bases during his summer in the Cape. Named the 2007 preseason best outfield arm in the SEC by Baseball America, Cowgill, who runs a 6.6 60-yard dash and squats over 525 pounds, was a 29th-round MLB Draft pick by the Oakland Athletics in June.
Green, a junior right-handed pitcher, enters the season as the 12th-best prospect in all of collegiate baseball, as ranked by Baseball America. The 6-foot-8, 245-pounder, missed all of the 2006 season after undergoing Tommy Johns surgery and played sparingly during the 2007 campaign while recovering from minor injuries. The Louisville, Ky., native rounded into form during the summer, working in 40 1/3 innings in the Cape Cod League, earning a 3-1 record, a 1.56 ERA, and a save in nine games. Green teamed with Cowgill to lead the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox to the league title, earning the distinction of the fourth-best prospect in the talent-rich Cape by Baseball America. A 15th-round MLB Draft pick of the Boston Red Sox, Green came back to UK for his fourth-year despite having top-round offers from the defending World Series Champions.
Last season, Cowgill was UK?s lone member of the Brooks Wallace Preseason Watch List. Vanderbilt pitcher and eventual first overall pick in the 2007 Draft David Price took home to award last year before moving on to the Tampa Bay Rays organization. Brad Lincoln, a star two-way player for Houston was the 2006 winner and Nebraska?s Alex Gordon, now a member of the Kansas City Royals, claimed the 2005 honor. The inaugural award was given in 2004 to Cal State Fullerton?s Kurt Suzuki, currently catching for the Oakland Athletics.
The Wallace Award is a dedication to the memory of the former Texas Tech player and assistant coach Brooks Wallace. Wallace was a slick-fielding shortstop at Texas Tech from 1977 to 1980. A four-year starter, he was named All-Southwest Conference and All-District his senior year. He led the Red Raiders to their first-ever appearance in the Southwest Conference Tournament in 1980. After playing two years in the Texas Rangers organization, he returned to Texas Tech and served as a graduate assistant and later as an assistant coach. In the summer of 1984, he was diagnosed with cancer and fought the disease courageously until his death on March 24, 1985, at age 27.
Kentucky opens its 2008 season on February 22, traveling to Mobile, Ala., for the Coca-Cola Classic.
Kentucky Baseball Sets Attendance Record, Finishes in Top-30
For the second consecutive year, the Kentucky baseball team has been ranked in the top-40 in the NCAA in attendance, finishing ranked 28th, with an average of 2,060 fans per game.
Kentucky totaled 33 home dates in 2007, good for a total home attendance of 67,989. Last year, UK cracked the top 50 for the first time in school history, totaling 1,649 fans per game, on 35 dates (57,707). Between the 2005 and 2006 season?s Kentucky had a 453-percent increase in attendance.
Holding down the top five spots in the NCAA were all Southeastern Conference schools, with Arkansas leading the way with a whopping per-game average of 8,089 fans, good for a total of 250,759. LSU (7,330), Mississippi State (6,795), South Carolina (4,986), and Ole Miss (4,958) rounded out the top five. UK finished 10th in the SEC, just ahead of Georgia and Tennessee.
UK?s 78 wins during the past two seasons, marks the most wins in a two-year span in the school?s 103-year history. UK totaled 44 wins in 2006, claiming its first SEC title in school history, and followed 2006 with a 34-win 2007 season.
