Five players from the Western Athletic Conference have been named to the pre-season release of the 2009 Brooks Wallace Player of the Year Award Watch List.
Fresno State led the list with two candidates, including Alan Ahmady (Jr., IF) and Tommy Mendonca (Jr., IF). Other candidates include New Mexico State senior first baseman Christopher Auten, Sacramento State junior center fielder Tim Wheeler, and San Jose sophomore first baseman State Danny Stienstra.
The two Bulldog infielders helped the Bulldogs earn the program's first National championship and third-straight WAC Championship. They were also a part of an infield that led the nation in double plays turned in 2008.
Mendonca led the team in homeruns (19) and was named the College World Series MVP. In Omaha the third basemen hit four homeruns, which ties the CWS record. Mendonca also spent the summer playing with the USA National team and won a gold medal.
Ahmady earned First Team All-WAC honors in 2008 and was second in the nation in RBIs with 92. He was also sixth in the nation in hits with 110. Ahmady ended the season with a .382 batting average,13 homeruns, 17 doubles, and 3 stolen bases.
Ahmady and Mendonca turned a double play against North Carolina that ended up being named the top play of the day on Sports Center. Ahmady caught the ball in foul territory, then launched the ball to third base and Mendonca tagged the runner out.
Auten, from Aurora Hills, California, hit .365 last in 2008 with 10 home runs and 24 doubles. He registered 62 runs with 92 hits and 56 RBI. He held a slugging percentage of .579 and was on base 45.2 percent of the time. Auten registered a .968 fielding percentage with 517 putouts on the year.
Wheeler, a native of Sacramento, was a pre and postseason first team all-Western Athletic Conference selection in 2008, hitting .330 with 3 home runs and 43 RBI. He had eight outfield assists on the season, while ranking second on the team during WAC play in RBI (22) and stolen bases (5). Wheeler had his best series of the season in an early conference test against Hawai'i, when he went 7-for-15 at the plate with a double, a triple, and two home runs, including a grand slam, driving home seven Hornet runs during a four-game sweep. The El Camino High School product also tied for the longest hitting streak in the WAC last season, hitting safely in 20 straight games during the year.
As a true freshman, Stienstra was named a Freshman All-American by three separate media outlets. Collegiate Baseball Newspaper chose him as a Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American, while Ping!Baseball.com put him on its All-Ping! Freshman Third Team, and Rivals.com on its Freshman All-America Second Team. Stienstra finished the season with a team-best .365 batting average (69-for-189), 23 runs scored, seven doubles, three triples, one home run and 32 runs batted in. He fielded .997 (338-20-1) as the regular first baseman. Stienstra started 46 of 51 games played. His 69 hits paced the team.
The Wallace Award is presented annually to the nation’s top collegiate baseball player in conjunction with the College Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremonies. The 2009 award banquet will be at 7 p.m., Thursday, July 2, in the United Spirit Arena on the campus of Texas Tech University.
The Wallace Award is dedicated to the memory of 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. The Plano, Texas, native was married to the former Sandy Arnold and they had one daughter, Lindsay Ryan.
Brooks Wallace National Player of the Year Award ? Past Winners
2008 Buster Posey Catcher Florida State
2007 David Price Pitcher Vanderbilt
2006 Brad Lincoln Pitcher/DH Houston
2005 Alex Gordon 3B Nebraska
2004 Kurt Suzuki Catcher Cal State Fullerton