New Mexico State senior shortstop Bryan Marquez and Fresno State junior third baseman Tom Mendonca have been named to the Louisville Slugger NCAA Division I All-America baseball team as announced by Collegiate Baseball newspaper, Thursday, May 28.
Marquez (Bonny Lake, Wash.), a first team all-Western Athletic Conference selection, was named a first team All-American along with big names such as San Diego State’s Stephen Strasburg and Arizona State’s Mike Leake.
Marquez, who led the Aggies to a 44-17 record this season, started 59 games at shortstop. He finished the year hitting .414 with 85 RBIs and 22 home runs. He helped NM State to the championship game in the 2009 Western Athletic Conference Tournament in Honolulu, Hawai’i where the Aggies entered as the No. 4 seed.
With a team-high 83 runs scored, a .795 slugging percentage and a .534 on-base percentage, Marquez ended the season with 49 walks and only 29 strikeouts. He also committed only 12 errors and had 213 assists, while he was in on 46 double-plays.
Marquez, a finalist for the 2009 Brooks Wallace Award for the nation’s best shortstop, was also a WAC Hitter of the Week and Louisville Slugger National Player of the Week for his performance during the week of March 9-15.
Mendonca (Turlock, Calif.), the WAC’s Player of the Year, earned Louisville Slugger NCAA Division I All-America second team honors. Mendonca has also been named a semi-finalist for the 2009 USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award. This year marks the 32nd consecutive year that the award will be presented to the nation's premier amateur baseball player.
Mendonca helped lead the Bulldogs to their fourth straight WAC Tournament title and was named to the all-tournament team. He is Fresno State's all-time home run leader with 56, 27 coming this year. He has the second most home runs in a single season and needs six to break the single season record. Mendonca is batting .345 this season with a WAC-best 27 home runs. He has 78 RBI and 54 runs scored. He committed only nine errors at third base this season.