Love Named Semifinalist For John Olerud Award
May 22, 2015 | Baseball
CLEARWATER, Fla. - East Carolina senior Reid Love has been named one of 21 semifinalists for the 2015 John Olerud Two-Way Player-of-the-Year Award as announced by the College Baseball Hall of Fame.
Love, who earned First-Team All-American Conference honors as a pitcher and was a unanimous first-team selection as a utility player, is the second Pirate in recent years to be named to the Watch List following Drew Reynolds selections from 2012-14, where he was named a finalist as a sophomore in 2012.
On the mound, Love owns a 7-3 record with four saves in 21 appearances (10 starts). The left-hander sports a 2.84 ERA with 77 strikeouts to just 10 walks in 88.2 innings of work. Since league play began March 27, Love is 5-1 in nine appearances (eight starts) with a pair of complete games - one a shutout (vs. Tulane on April 2). The Dunnellon, Fla. native has allowed just 17 runs (16 earned) with 64 strikeouts in 63.1 innings.
At the plate, Love is batting .294 (48-for-163) with three home runs, 20 RBI and 22 runs. He has registered 13 multi-hit games, which included career-best five hits, four RBI and three run against Elon on March 15. In league games only, he led the club with a .342 (26-for-76) average with a pair of home runs and nine RBI.
The award is named for the former Washington State University standout who achieved success both as a first baseman and left-handed pitcher during the late 1980s and who was inducted into the National College Baseball Hall of Fame in 2007. The award will be presented as part of the hall of Fame's Night of Champions celebration June 28-29 in Lubbock. To make the list of semifinalists, candidates must have at least 20 innings pitched or no fewer than six saves.
Love and the Pirates stand at 2-0 in the double-elimination bracket of the 2015 AAC Baseball Championships and will face either Tulane or UConn Saturday, May 23 at 1 p.m. (ET) for a trip to Sunday's championship game. ECU needs just one win to reach Sunday's final, while No. 3 seed Tulane or No. 6 seed UConn would have to beat ECU twice to advance.
