LOWELL, Mass. — America East regular season champions, the Binghamton Bearcats, took home two of the four major awards as all-conference accolades were handed out on Tuesday night at the America East Baseball Awards Banquet held at the Tsongas Center in Lowell, Mass., on the eve of the conference’s baseball championship. The award winners and all-conference teams were determined by the league’s seven head coaches who were not permitted to vote for their own players.
Stony Brook’s Toby Handley was honored as the conference’s Player of the Year, while Binghamton head coach Tim Sinicki was named Coach of the Year and sophomore Nick Gallagher was named Pitcher of the Year. UMBC freshman Christian Torres earned Rookie of the Year accolades.
Player of the Year
Toby Handley, Sr., Stony Brook
- Toby Handley is the fifth Stony Brook player in the last seven years to be named America East Player of the Year.
- He ranked third in the league with a .346 batting average, while leading the league in triples, stolen bases and walks, all while playing outstanding defense in the Seawolves outfield.
- Handley helped Stony Brook to a top-3 seed for the 12th time in the last 13 years.
Pitcher of the Year
Nick Gallagher, So., Binghamton
- Nick Gallagher is the fifth Pitcher of the Year in Binghamton program history and the second-straight Bearcat to earn the honor.
- He led the America East with a 2.33 ERA and an 8-2 record, striking out 55 batters in 65.2 innings.
Rookie of the Year
Christian Torres, Fr., UMBC
- Christian Torres is the second Rookie of the Year from UMBC in program history.
- The freshman third-baseman was third in the league during conference play, hitting .375, compiling 27 hits in 20 America East contests.
- He also drove in 15 runs during conference play and ranked in the top-15 of both slugging percentage and on-base percentage.
Coach of the Year
Tim Sinicki, Binghamton
- Tim Sinicki earns his sixth Coach of the Year Award, which is the most all-time in America East history
- The Bearcats finished 15-4 and captured their second-straight regular season title.
- Binghamton has won either the regular season or tournament title in eight of the last 11 seasons.
30 players earned All-Conference recognition while nine were All-Rookie choices and 11 more garnered All-Academic recognition. View a complete list of All-Conference, All-Rookie & All-Academic selections.
The 2017 America East Baseball Championship begins on Wednesday with No. 4 Albany facing No. 5 Maine at 11 a.m. and No. 3 Stony Brook taking on No. 6 Hartford at 2:30 p.m. The two losing teams will play an elimination game at 6 p.m. The top seeds, No. 1 Binghamton and No. 2 UMBC, will be in action on Thursday, along with another elimination game. Three more games will be played Friday while the championship games will be played on Saturday. The league champion will receive an automatic bid to the 2017 NCAA Baseball Championship. Complete championship information can be found on Championship Central.
