NM State's Gonzales Earns National Player of the Year Award
NM State's Gonzales Earns National Player of the Year Award
TUCSON, Ariz. - Following a pandemic-shortened season, NM State junior Nick Gonzales was named National Player of the Year by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper.
He finished the season ranked in the top five in the nation in 10 categories: home runs (1st), home runs per game (3rd), runs (1st), runs batted in (1st), runs batted in per game (1st), total bases (1st), slugging percentage (2nd), on-base percentage (3rd), walks (4th) and walks per game (5th).
Gonzales hit five home runs in a single day against Purdue Fort Wayne on Feb. 29 as he hit two in game one of a doubleheader before belting three more in the nightcap, including an inside-the-park grand slam.
At one point, he hit 12 home runs in only 48 at-bats over 13 games and was on pace to hit 50 homers. When the season was suspended, he had a national best on-base streak of 82 consecutive games.
In addition to earning the top honor, he was named First Team All-America by the publication for the second straight season. A consensus top-five pick in next month's MLB Draft,
Also earning honors was Sacramento State senior pitcher Parker Brahms, who was named a Second-Team selection after going 2-1 with a 1.14 ERA over 23.6 innings, adding 32 strikeouts to his school-record total and going the shortened season without allowing a single walk.
2020 Collegiate Baseball All-Americans