Maness And Woods Take Home C-USA Honors
May 25, 2010 | Baseball
May 25, 2010
HOUSTON, Texas - East Carolina's Seth Maness was named Pitcher-of-the-Year, while Zach Woods took home the Newcomer-of-the-Year Award Conference USA officials announced Tuesday afternoon.
ECU (31-25) had five players named all-conference including two on the first-team in Maness and senior DH Kyle Roller. Sophomore Corey Thompson along with Woods were tabbed second-team, while John Wooten took home All-Freshman Team accolades.
Voting was done by a panel consisting of each head coach, each team's sports information director and a media representative from each city.
One year after becoming the first Freshman to be named Player-of-the-Year, Rice's Anthony Rendon became just the second player in league history (Jake Gautreau, Tulane, 2000-01) to garner back-to-back Player-of-the-Year honors.
UCF infielder Chris Taladay was named Freshman-of-the-Year, the first individual award for the Knights since beginning play in the league in 2006. The Keith LeClair Coach-of-the-Year award went to Rice head coach Wayne Graham for the fourth time in five years. The award that is named for the former East Carolina skipper who courageously battled ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) before passing in 2006.
Maness, the 2008 C-USA Freshman-of-the-Year and three-time first-team All C-USA performer, has logged a league-high 93.2 innings over 14 starts and has posted a conference-best nine win. He has registered 82 strikeouts and walked just 15 batters all season. Maness owns a 9-3 record on the season, which has moved him up to fourth place on the Conference USA's career chart with 27 victories, which includes a 17-3 career mark versus league opponents. He has one complete game this year and added a save in one of two relief appearances.
Woods, a transfer from Louisburg College, follows ECU hurlers Chris Heston (2009) and Justin Bristow (2008) in garnering Newcomer-of-the-Year recognition. The second-team All C-USA performer leads the league in strikeouts (95) and batters struck out looking (35), while ranking second in victories (8). Overall, Woods is 8-4 with a 4.73 ERA and one save in 83.2 innings pitched.
Roller earned his second-straight C-USA first-team honor as the league's top DH after posting a .331 (59-for-178) average with 10 home runs and 45 RBI. The senior from Rockingham, N.C. set a new single-season school record with 59 free passes and was hit 21 times, which ranks third on the Pirates single-season charts. He has started 54 of 55 games splitting time evenly between first base (28 games) and as the DH (27). Roller is an on-base machine this season posting an impressive .537 on-base percentage (59 H, 59 BB, 21 HBP), which leads C-USA and ranks fifth nationally.
Thompson earned second-team honors after leading the Pirates in average (.378), hits, (82), runs (59), RBI (54) and total bases (126). He garnered C-USA Hitter-of-the-Week honors on March 1 after leading the Pirates to a series victory over then No. 10 South Carolina where he batted a team-best .438 (7-for-16) with seven hits and six RBI. Thompson is one of 21 players in the country and the fourth Pirate since 1999 to hit for the cycle when he posted a 4-for-5 hitting effort against Marshall on April. 30.
Wooten is the 13th Pirate to take home All-Freshman Team honors since ECU joined the league back in 2002. The rookie from Goldsboro, N.C. has started 51 of 52 games played experiencing action at short (21 games), first (18), third (9) and in the outfield (3). Currently he ranks in the top-5 on the squad in this (65), home runs (9), average (.311), RBI (40) and runs (38). Wooten opened his freshman season by hitting a home run in his first collegiate at-bat against then No. 2 Virginia and started his career with a homer in three-straight games. He belted his first grand-slam against conference foe Memphis on April 10 and collected his first multi-HR against Houston on May. 21.
2010 CONFERENCE USA BASEBALL AWARDS
PLAYER-OF-THE-YEAR
Anthony Rendon, So., 3B, Rice
PITCHER-OF-THE-YEAR
Seth Maness, Jr., RHP, East Carolina
FRESHMAN-OF-THE-YEAR
Chris Taladay, Fr., IF, UCF
NEWCOMER-OF-THE-YEAR
Zach Woods, Jr., RHP, East Carolina
KEITH LeCLAIR COACH-OF-THE-YEAR
Wayne Graham, Rice
FIRST TEAM ALL-CONFERENCE
IF - Anthony Rendon, So., Rice
IF - Rob Segedin, So., Tulane
IF - Luke Stewart, Sr., UAB
IF - B.A. Vollmuth, So., Southern Miss
OF - Shane Brown, Sr., UCF
OF - Chris Duffy, Sr., UCF
OF - Kurt Lipton, Sr., Marshall
C - Victor Gomez, Jr., Marshall
DH/UT - Kyle Roller, Sr., East Carolina
P - Scott Copeland, Sr., Southern Miss
P - Seth Maness, Jr., East Carolina
P - Todd McInnis, Jr., Southern Miss
P - Arik Sikula, Jr., Marshall
RP - Collin Cargill, Jr., Southern Miss
SECOND TEAM ALL-CONFERENCE
IF - Jimmy Comerota, Sr., Rice
IF - Rick Hague, Jr., Rice
IF - Jonathan Merritt, Sr., UAB
IF - Corey Thompson, So., East Carolina
IF - Chad Zurcher, So., Memphis
OF - Jamal Austin, So., UAB
OF - Tyler Huelsing, Sr., Memphis
OF - Drew Martinez, So., Memphis
C - Diego Seastrunk, Sr., Rice
DH/UT - Jeremy Rathjen, So., Rice
P - Ryan Fraser, Sr., Memphis
P - Mike Ojala, Sr., Rice
P - Taylor Wall, So., Rice
P - Zach Woods, Jr., East Carolina
RP - Nick Pepitone, Jr., Tulane
ALL-FRESHMAN TEAM
Brandon Boudreaux, OF, Tulane
Garrett Cannizaro, SS, Tulane
M.P. Cokinos, C/DH, Houston
Blake Crohan, UT, Tulane
Dillon Day, OF, Southern Miss
John Frost, UT, UAB
Kirby Pellant, 2B, Marshall
Michael Ratterree, 2B, Rice
Joe Rogers, LHP, UCF
Darnell Sweeney, SS, UCF
Chris Taladay, IF, UCF
John Wooten, SS, East Carolina
