sports_m-basebl_spec-rel_060999aab

June 9, 1999

The National Collegiate Baseball Writer’s
Association has released its list of winners
for the organization’s eight newly created
Regional College Baseball “Players of the Year”.
With the advent of the new NCAA realignment for
the Division I Baseball championships, the NCBWA
has chosen to begin shining the spotlight not only
on it’s selection for national ‘player of the year’
honors–The NCBWA / Dick Howser Trophy winner, but
also on the most talented players across the nation,
highlighting selections from each region of the country.

The following players are the winners of the Eight
NCBWA Regional “Player of the Year” honors followed
by a thumbnail sketch of each player’s season:

NCBWA / EAST Region

Mike Dwyer, P/1B, Richmond

NCBWA / NORTHEAST Region

Kevin Mench, OF, Delaware

NCBWA / SOUTH Region

Andy Phillips, SS, Alabama

NCBWA / ATLANTIC

Marshall McDougall, 2B, Fla. St.

Region NCBWA / CENTRAL Region

Ben Broussard, 1B, McNeese State

(Tie) Ben Sheets, P, NE Louisiana

NCBWA / MIDEAST

Robb Quinlan, 1B, Minnesota

NCBWA / MIDWEST Region

Jason Jennings, P/ATH, Baylor

(Tie) Ken Harvey, 1B, Nebraska

NCBWA / WEST Region

Mario Ramos, P, Rice

A Look At The Winners:

NCBWA / EAST Region

MIKE DWYER

Dwyer, University of Richmond’s senior first
baseman/pitcher, 6-2, 200 pounds from Stony
Point, N.Y. holds UR records for career homers (54)
and RBI (213), batting .407 with team-leading totals
of 20 homers and 74 RBI As left-handed pitcher,
is 10-4 with a 3.00 ERA, earning Colonial Athletic
Association Player of the Year He set UR season
record for homers in a season (24) as a junior,
when he was named all-CAA and CAA tournament MVP.

NCBWA / NORTHEAST Region

KEVIN MENCH, Delaware

Mench, who was the Collegiate Baseball Magazine
Player of the Year in 1998 when he led the NCAA
in home runs (33) and slugging percentage (1.091),
s coming off a 1999 season that saw him bat .373
with 19 home runs and 70 RBI to make him a All-American.
He also won his second straight America East Player of
the Year award marking the first time in conference
history that a player won the award for a second time.
Mench ended the season at third place on the all-time
NCAA Division I slugging percentage list at .875 where
he is behind only Pete Incaviglia (.915) and Pat
Burrell (.886). Mench finished the season as Delaware’s
all-time leader in home runs (71), total bases (527) and
batting average (.409).

NCBWA / SOUTH Region

ANDY PHILLIPS

In 60 games, Phillips is batting .395 with 22 home
runs and 66 RBI. He is in the midst of the longest
hitting streak (33 games) in school and SEC history.
Philips is also the Alabama career record holder for
run scored, hits, home runs, RBI and total bases.
He is on the verge of setting UA career records for
games, at-bats, doubles and triples. The Demopolis, Ala.,
native has been named
first-team All-SEC by the league’s 12 coaches.
Phillips was recently named Most Valuable Player at
the 1999 NCAA Tuscaloosa Regional, where he led the Tide
to its third regional title in the last four years.

NCBWA / ATLANTIC Region

MARSHALL MCDOUGALL

McDougall, the ACC Player of the Year, leads the
conference in every major offensive category and is
making a run at the ACC triple crown and national
player of the year honors with a .429 batting average,
25 home runs, 96 RBI and 97 runs scored. The last player
to lead the conference in batting avg., home runs and
RBI was Maryland’s Derek Hacopianin 1992. McDougall set
three NCAA single game records at Maryland (5/9) with
six home runs, 16 RBI and 25 totalbases in the 26-2 win
over the Terps. He had a hitting streak earlier this
season of 33 games (one short of J.D. Drew’s school
record) that ended against Miami.

NCBWA / CENTRAL Region

(Tie) BEN BROUSSARD

BEN SHEETS

A native of Sour Lake, TX, Broussard re-wrote the
McNeese records for hitting during the past season,
collecting single season and career records for home
runs, RBIs, hits, runs and total bases. This past year
he batted .427 and was named the Southland Conference’s
hitter of the year for the second year in a row. He
also completed this semester on the MSU Academic Honor Roll.

Sheets was named Southland Conference Player and Pitcher
of the Year. The 6-2, right-hander earned national player
of the week honors this season after striking out an NLU
and SLC record 20 batters against Louisiana Tech. In the
game, the St. Amant, La., native allowed just two hits
and walked one while retiring the last 20 batters he faced.
He shared the award with FSU’s Marshall McDougall who hit six
home runs in a single game.

NCBWA / MIDEAST Region

ROBB QUINLAN

One of the nations premier players, Quinlan rewrote the
Minnesota record books and is the schools career leader
in total bases An outstanding hitter with power, Quinlan
was the recipient of the Paul Molitor endowed scholarship
for 1998-99. The Maplewood, Minnesota, native earned
Big Ten Player of the Year honors in 1999 and led the
Golden Gophers to the NCAA Regional in Waco. He duplicated
a sterling season of one year ago when he set Minnesota
single-season records for home runs, hits, runs and total
bases, leading the Big Ten in home runs, runs scored,
total bases, hits and slugging percentage.

NCBWA / MIDWEST Region

(tie)JASON JENNINGS

KEN HARVEY

Jennings, the Big 12 Player of the Year, is a dual
threat, both on the mound and at the plate. On the
hill, he is 13-2 and ranks ninth nationally in ERA
and tied for fifth in wins. He has set a new Baylor
season record with over 172 strikeouts in 147.2
innings pitched. At the plate he is hitting .385
with 17 homers and 66 RBI. He was named MVP of last
week’s NCAA Waco Regional and was also selected to
the GTE/CoSIDA Academic All-America First-Team.

Harvey set school records with 23 home runs and a
.478 batting average. In 1999, he also had 107 hits,
second most in school history, 77 runs scored, 86 runs
batted in, a .862 slugging percentage, 38 walks, a .558
on-base percentage, 13 stolen bases and a fielding
percentage of .996 making two errors in 447 chances.
Harvey has been the nations leader in batting average
since the NCAA first published statistics leaders on
April 6. The final NCAA statistics will be released
following the College World Series, but Harvey owns a
19-pointadvantage over Vanderbilts Hunter Bledsoe,
who finished the 1999 season with a .458 average.
The closest active player is Florida States
Marshall McDougall. The Nebraska junior first
baseman was picked by the Kansas City Royals in
the fifth round of the 1999 Major League Baseball Draft.

NCBWA / WEST Region

MARIO RAMOS

Ramos, the Western Athletic Conference Pitcher of
the Year has helped the Rice Owl’s to their third
straight WAC title and a berth in the upcoming
College World Series, the second trip to the CWS
in his career. Ramos travels to Omaha sporting a 13-2
record in 23 games, a 2.42 earned run average in
148-plus innings, 142 strikeouts, 6 complete games
and 2 saves on the year. The lefthander has been named
third-team on the GTE Academic All-America squad as
selected by the College Sports Information Directors America.
He carries a 3.464 cumulative grade point average, majoring in anthropology.

The voting process by members of the National
Collegiate Baseball Writer’s began in February.
he NCBWA will also announce it’s 1999 NCBWA Super
Team–The NCBWA’s 30-member All American Team–
also on Thursday, June 10th in Omaha.

The selection of the NCBWA / DICK HOWSER Trophy
will be announced Saturday morning, June 12th,
live in Omaha, just prior to the national telecasts
of Day Two of the NCAA College World Series on CBS,
ESPN and ESPN 2.

The NCBWA is the official selector of the 12-year-old
Dick Howser Trophy, given by the St. Petersburg, Florida,
Chamber of Commerce, celebrating its 100th birthday in 1999.
The NCBWA/Dick Howser Trophy, presented annually to America’s
outstanding college baseball player, is given in memory
of the former Florida State University All American and
major league player and manager, who died of brain cancer in 1987.

Criteria for consideration for the trophy include
performance on the field, leadership, moral character
and courage, qualities that were exemplified by Dick
Howser’s life. The NCBWA/Howser Trophy is presented
each June to an NCAA Division I player at the College
World Series in Omaha–another presentation takes place
later on the campus of the winner.

The winner’s name is inscribed on the permanent trophy,
a bronze bust of Howser permanently displayed at Tropicana
Field in St. Petersburg, home of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
Both the winner and his school receive a special trophy of
their own to display.

With the ABCA “Player of the Year” and the USA Baseball
“Golden Spikes Award”, this elite group forms the
‘Triple Crown’ of College Baseball honors.

NCBWA REGION BREAKDOWN–8 Groupings

Conferences / Schools residing in each Region

EAST--39 schools       CENTRAL--30 Schools
Atlantic 10            C-USA
Big East               Southland
Colonial Athletic      SWAC 
Ivy Group             (Ind.)
NORTHEAST--36 schools  MIDWEST--26 Schools
America East           Big 12
Patriot                Midwest Collegiate
NEC                    Missouri Valley
MAAC                  (Ind.)
ATLANTIC--35 schools   MIDEAST--37 Schools
ACC                    Big 10
Southern               Mid-American
Big South              Mid-Continent
MEAC                   Ohio Valley
Miami(Fla.)           (Ind.)
SOUTH--31 schools      WEST--40 Schools
SEC                    Big West
Sun Belt               WCC
TAAC                   WAC
                       PAC 10