HOOVER, Ala. (May, 22, 2017)—–The Southeastern Conference on Monday announced its 2017 Baseball Awards and All-SEC Teams, recognizing standout performances from this season. The 2017 SEC Baseball Tournament will be played Tuesday through Sunday at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.
Mississippi State’s Brent Rooker was named the SEC Player of the Year, Kentucky’s Sean Hjelle is the SEC Pitcher of the Year, Texas A&M’s Braden Shewmake is the SEC Freshman of the Year, Kentucky’s Nick Mingione is the SEC Coach of the Year and Kentucky’s Zach Logue is the SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
Rooker leads the SEC in several offensive categories, including batting average (.415), hits (85), RBI (73), home runs (20), doubles (28), slugging percentage (.873) and total bases (179). He is the first Mississippi State player to reach 20 home runs, 20 doubles, 70 RBI, and the first SEC hitter to do so since 2000.
Hjelle is 9-2 this season with a 3.17 ERA, including a 7-1 mark in SEC action with a 1.90 ERA. His nine wins this season move him into a tie for 6th place on Kentucky’s single-season wins list. Hjelle has allowed one earned run or less in six of his last seven starts and has given up six or fewer hits in his last 12 starts.
Shewmake is a two-time SEC Freshman of the Week honoree, and he is batting .342 with 39 runs, 16 doubles, two triples, 10 home runs and 64 RBI. He ranks second in the SEC in RBI, fourth in hits and fourth in total bases.
Mingione was named SEC Coach of the Year in his first season at the helm of the Wildcats. Kentucky’s 38 wins on the season are the most since 2012, and 38 wins are the most for a first-year Kentucky head coach. Kentucky finished second in the Eastern Division and earned the No. 3 seed in the SEC Tournament.
Logue has earned a 3.96 GPA in Chemical Engineering at Kentucky. He is a two-time member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll, and he is 6-5 with a 5.03 ERA and has 76 strikeouts in 77.0 innings this season.
2017 SEC Baseball Awards
Player of the Year: Brent Rooker, Mississippi State
Pitcher of the Year: Sean Hjelle, Kentucky
Freshman of the Year: Braden Shewmake, Texas A&M
Coach of the Year: Nick Mingione, Kentucky
Scholar-Athlete of the Year: Zach Logue, Kentucky
First-Team All-SEC
C: Grant Koch, Arkansas
1B: Brent Rooker, Mississippi State
2B: Braden Shewmake, Texas A&M
3B: Jordan Rodgers, Tennessee
SS: Ryan Gridley, Mississippi State
OF: Greg Deichmann, LSU
OF: Tristan Pompey, Kentucky
OF: Jeren Kendall, Vanderbilt
DH/UT: Michael Curry, Georgia
SP: Kyle Wright, Vanderbilt
*SP: Sean Hjelle, Kentucky
*SP: Alex Lange, LSU
RP: Logan Salow, Kentucky
Second-Team All-SEC Team
C: Troy Squires, Kentucky
1B: Evan White, Kentucky
2B: Riley Mahan, Kentucky
3B: Colby Bortles, Ole Miss
*SS: Kramer Robertson, LSU
*SS: Jax Biggers, Arkansas
OF: Jonah Todd, Auburn
OF: Jake Mangum, Mississippi State
OF: Chandler Taylor, Alabama
DH/UT: JJ Schwarz, Florida
SP: Alex Faedo, Florida
SP: Brady Singer, Florida
RP: Michael Byrne, Florida
Freshman All-SEC Team
C: Hunter Coleman, Texas A&M
1B: Andre Lipcius, Tennessee
2B: Braden Shewmake, Texas A&M
3B: Josh Smith, LSU
SS: Cam Shepherd, Georgia
OF: Carlos Cortes, South Carolina
OF: Zach Watson, LSU
OF: Dominic Fletcher, Arkansas
DH/UT: Logan Foster, Texas A&M
SP: Ryan Rolison, Ole Miss
SP: Eric Walker, LSU
RP: T.J. Sikkema, Missouri
SEC All-Defensive Team
C: Michael Papierski, LSU
1B: Evan White, Kentucky
2B: Deacon Liput, Florida
3B: Josh Smith, LSU
SS: Dalton Guthrie, Florida
OF: Jeren Kendall, Vanderbilt
OF: Jonah Todd, Auburn
OF: Jake Mangum, Mississippi State
P: Brigham Hill, Texas A&M
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- Denotes a tie in voting. Ties are not broken.
