Kruczynski And Williams-Sutton Named First-Team All-Conference
May 23, 2016 | Baseball
CLEARWATER, Fla. - East Carolina junior Evan Kruczynski and freshman Dwanya Williams-Sutton have been named First-Team All-American Athletic Conference the league announced Monday afternoon, while redshirt junior Travis Watkins was tabbed as a second-teamer.
With the Kruczynski and Williams-Sutton's selections, the Pirates have had at least one player selected to a first-team for 13-straight years (2004 to present).
Kruczynski heads into The American Baseball Championships with a 6-1 record and a league second-best 1.95 ERA. The lefty, who has tallied 12 quality starts (22 career) ranks among the league leaders in pickoffs (first), ERA (third), fewest runs allowed (third), fewest earned runs allowed (fourth), Ks looking (seventh), wins (t6th), fewest walks (ninth) and total strikeouts (ninth). During the season he was named to the Golden Spike Midseason Award and National College Baseball Hall of Fame Pitcher-of-the-Year Watch lists, and just last week was named a semifinalist for the Gregg Olson Award. In 14 starts, he has registered 77 strikeouts to 18 walks, while allowing 27 runs (21 earned) on 88 hits in 97.0 innings.
Williams-Sutton led The American in batting average (.372), slugging percentage (.601) and on-base percentage (.463) as a freshman. He became the first Pirate since Brian Cavanaugh to lead a conference in average (.382) back in 2005 when ECU was a member of Conference USA. The freshman outfielder started 47 of 48 games, belted five home runs, laced four triples and 11 doubles (20 extra base hits), while scoring 28 runs, driving in 27 and swiped 6 of 9 bases. Williams-Sutton earned American Player-of-the-Week honors on May 23, took home a pair of league honor roll selections (Feb. 29 and May 9) and tallied six game-winning RBI with four coming in league play.
Watkins, one of three team co-captains, batted .315 on the season which ranked sixth in The American. The four-time Johnny Bench Award candidate and 2015 semifinalist, leads the Pirates in doubles (14) and runs (36), while ranking second in RBI (31) and total bases (87). He has hit three home runs, tallied five game winning RBI (13 career) and has registered at least one hit in 45 of 54 games. Against Memphis (April 16), he laced three doubles in the Pirates 8-2 win, which hadn't been seen since 2011 (Trent Whitehead). Watkins ranks among the league leaders in runners thrown out (third), hits (fourth), on-base percentage (sixth) and doubles (t6th).
The Pirates (34-19-1) will open the 2016 American Baseball Championships on Wednesday, May 25 at Bright House Field against No. 7 seed USF (23-31) with an 11 a.m. (ET) scheduled first pitch.
