By Katie Dowd January 21, 2009 | 2:39 pm
As the collegiate baseball season steadily creeps up upon us, the preseason watch lists have also emerged. The Cal baseball team-coming off its first postseason appearance since 2001-has a handful of players making noise on the national stage.
Sophomore right-hander Kevin Miller (you know, the fresh-faced freshman pitcher who didn’t give up an earned run in his first 44 innings) has been tabbed as a Wallace Awardwatch list-er. The Wallace Award is given to the best collegiate baseball player in the country and has been bestowed upon such players as A’s catcher Kurt Suzuki and Alex Gordon, third baseman of the Royals. In his first year with the team, Miller boasted an ERA of 2.90 with opponents batting just .196 against him, both good for second in the Pac-10.
Junior Brett Jackson, the Bears’ starting center fielder, has been named the No. 13 player in the country by the College Baseball Blog. Last year, the speedy outfielder hit .307 with 40 RBI and started all 56 games for Cal. He also led the Bears with 12 stolen bases.
Last but not least, Cal’s resident renaissance man-pitcher/outfielder Blake Smith-also picked up no less than three preseason nods. The junior has been deemed the No. 16 player in the country by the Blog, a second-team All-American preseason selection by Louisville Slugger and is also on the watch list for the Wallace Award. Smith, who will likely provide the offensive firepower for the Bears this season, was third on the squad last year in RBI (43) and was 3-0 as a hard-throwing relief pitcher.
During the summer, Smith was busy burning up the international circuit as a utility player on the USA Baseball National Collegiate Team. En route to a gold-medal, 24-0 season, Smith led the team in batting average (.327), and notched 13 RBI in just 20 games. On the mound, Smith maintained an ERA of 0.00 with 11 K’s in nine innings of relief work.
The Bears begin the 2009 campaign at home against UC Riverside on February 20 at 1:30 p.m.
Tags:
Blake Smith,
Brett Jackson,
Cal baseball,
Kevin Miller