LAS CRUCES, N.M. – The huge week continues for the New Mexico State baseball program with sophomore
Nick Gonzales being named a finalist for the Bobby Bragan Collegiate Slugger Award presented by SR Bats Wednesday afternoon.
He joins Josh Jung and Cameron Warren from Texas Tech and Kody Hoese from Tulane as one of four finalists for the award. In addition, Gonzales was a semifinalist for the prestigious Golden Spikes Award, given out to the nation's top amateur baseball player. He is also a semifinalist for the Dick Howser Trophy, given out to the nation's best collegiate baseball player by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA).
The star second baseman led the Western Athletic Conference in batting average (.432), slugging percentage (.773), on-base percentage (.532) and sac flies (8). Meanwhile, the All-American was second in run scored (80), second in hits (95), second in total bases (170), second in walks (45), third in RBI (80), fourth in doubles (19), third in triples (4) and fourth in homers (16).
Nationally, he led the nation in batting average, third in slugging percentage, fourth in hits, fourth in runs, fifth in RBI, fifth in on-base percentage, sixth in total bases and eighth in sac flies.
Gonzales was recently named an All-American by Collegiate Baseball, the sixth All-American honor in his young career thanks to the five All-America nods he earned as a freshman. Heading into the conference tournament, he was named a First-Team All-WAC honoree for the second-straight year.
The BBCSA, created by the Bobby Bragan Youth Foundation, was open to nominations from all Division I baseball programs in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico and Oklahoma. The BBCSA originally had 30 players nominated for the award at the beginning of the season and added 18 players to its midseason watch list. The award is based on performance at the plate, academics and personal integrity.
The winner of the BBCSA will be announced later this month and honored at a gala in the fall.
Texas Tech's Hunter Hargrove won the initial BBCSA in 2017 while Dallas Baptist's Devlin Granberg took home the honor in 2018.
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