LAS CRUCES, N.M. – The honors continue to roll in for New Mexico State baseball second baseman
Nick Gonzales after being named the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) District 8 Player of the Year Friday for afternoon.
Gonzales is just the fifth Aggie to earn NCBWA Player of the Year honors and first since Bryan Marquez in 2009. The Vail, Ariz., product was recently named a finalist for the Bobby Bragan Collegiate Slugger Award and received Collegiate Baseball First-Team All-America honors back in May. He was also a semifinalist for the Golden Spikes Award and the Dick Howser Trophy.
His sophomore campaign saw him lead 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, Gonzales 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.
Other NCBWA District Player of the Year honorees include…
District 1 – Patrick McColl, 1B, Harvard
District 2 – Alek Manoah, SP, West Virginia
District 3 – JJ Bleday, OF, Vanderbilt
District 4 – Noah Song, SP, Navy
District 5 – Garrett Acton, RP, Illinois
District 6 – TJ Sikkema, SP, Missouri
District 7 – Kody Hoese, 3B, Tulane
Josh Jung, 3B, Texas Tech
District 8 – Nick Gonzales, 2B, New Mexico State
District 9 – Adley Rutschman, C, Oregon State
Andrew Vaughn, 1B, California
++NM State ++
