Baseball Regular-Season Major Awards and All-BIG EAST Teams Announced
NEW YORK – On the eve of the 35th BIG EAST Baseball tournament, the league announced the regular-season awards and all-conference teams. Creighton, the 2019 regular-season champion, nabbed three of the four major awards. Bluejay junior first baseman
Jake Holton was named the 2019 BIG EAST Player of the Year, while teammate senior
Mitch Ragan earned Pitcher of the Year accolades. Villanova’s
Nick Lorusso earned Freshman of the Year accolades. Creighton skipper
Ed Servais and his bench won Coaching Staff of the Year awards.
It is the first time since 2014 that one team earned both Player and Pitcher of the Year awards. In 2014, Seton Hall’s D.J. Ruhlman was Co-Player of the Year, while Josh Provost was Pitcher.
Along with the four major regular-season awards, the conference announced the 2019 All-Conference First and Second Teams, preceding the 2019 BIG EAST Championship presented by Jeep, which will takes place at Prasco Park in Mason, Ohio from May 23-26.
The league’s tournament teams: Creighton, St. John’s, Seton Hall and Xavier, made up 19 of the 28 all-conference selections.
Creighton, the regular season champion and the No. 1 seed in the upcoming tournament, had a league-high seven total all-conference selections, three on the first team. No. 3 seed St. John’s had the largest number of first team selections with four.
The 13-member first team was made up of four starting pitchers, a reliever, each infield position, three outfielders, a catcher and a designated hitter. Five of the fist team honorees were unanimous selections. The second team was based on a non-positional vote.
Voting for the All-BIG EAST Team and major awards was conducted by the league's seven head coaches who could not cast a ballot for their own players.
Holton won the conference’s top individual honor after a productive campaign for No. 1 seed Creighton. The junior first baseman is the second Bluejay to earn Player of the Year honors, first since 2014’s Reagan Fowler, Creighton’s first year in the conference. Holton topped the league leader lists in batting (.463), hits (31), on-base percentage (.576), runs (19) and doubles (8) during a 14-4 campaign for the Bluejays. The Los Gatos, Calif., native won the BIG EAST Player of the Week five times over the course of the season. In 46 starts for Creighton, Holton led the BIG EAST in batting (.409), slugging (.739) and on-base percentage (.507). He scored 47 times with 52 RBI. Holton was a unanimous pick to the All-BIG EAST First Team.
Creighton’s
Ragan is the first Creighton pitcher to earn BIG EAST Pitcher of the Year distinction. Ragan went 3-1 in league action with a 2.34 ERA in 42.1 innings pitched. He allowed just 11 earned runs to score, walking four. He struck out 37 batters as his opponents hit just .214 against him. The Omaha native pitched 86.1 innings with a BIG EAST high eight wins. Ragan struck out 83 and walked just 13. He notched one complete game and one partial shutout.
Lorusso is Villanova’s fifth BIG EAST Freshman of the Year, first since 1994. He led the Wildcats in batting with a .302 average, a .408 on-base percentage and a .425 slugging percentage while also amassing team highs with 54 hits and 28 walks. His four home runs and 29 RBI were second in the Villanova offense, while his eight doubles and 26 runs scored were third. In BIG EAST play, Lorusso batted .290, leading the team. It was the best batting average against conference pitching by a Wildcats newcomer in 10 years. Lorusso also pitched in 16 games this season, including six starts, and had 32 strikeouts over 41 2/3 innings pitched. It is the second consecutive year that a dual threat rookie earned BIG EAST Freshman of the Year honors. In 2018, Xavier’s Allbry Major, who was a starting pitcher as well as an outfielder, took home the crown.
Servais may have set the tone for the 2019 season being a special one as the Bluejay head coach collected his 700th career win in the season opening win over Arkansas-Little Rock on Feb. 15. In his 16th season at Creighton, Servais has a record of 734-400-2 (.647) and a 552-318-1 (.634) with the Bluejays. This is Servais' second BIG EAST Coaching Staff of the Year award as the Bluejays also earned the honor in 2014. Going into the weekend, Creighton is ranked in three national polls, checking in at No. 25 in both the D1Baseball.com and Baseball America’s final regular season rankings and No. 27 in the NCBWA poll. With a 35-11 overall record the Bluejays sit at No. 23 in the NCAA RPI.
Joining Ragan on the All-BIG EAST first team pitching staff were Xavier junior Conor Grammes, Butler sophomore Connor Schultz and St. John’s junior Joe LaSorsa. Grammes was the coaches unanimous selection at both pitcher and designated hitter. During league games, the junior righty was the conference leader in ERA (1.55) with a 3-0 record in five appearances and 29.0 innings pitched. Batters hit just .202 against him. As designated hitter, Grammes batted .387 against league opponents, .333 overall. Grammes, the coaches preseason pick for Player of the Year, scored 19 times, with six RBI, five doubles and two triples. Schultz posted a 1.73 ERA in 36.1 innings pitched over five league starts. He was a part of two shutout victories, one combined, one solo and struck out 32 BIG EAST batters. LaSorsa finished the regular season with a 2.43 ERA in league action going 2-3 with a combined shutout in 37.0 innings. He allowed just 26 hits and struck out 24.
Red Storm junior righty reliever Gavin Hollowell was selected as the first team relief pitcher. Hollowell had four saves in seven appearances and combined for a shutout win in 18.1 innings of relief. He struck out 30 batters and allowed just six runs to score, five earned for a 2.45 ERA. Batters hit just .221 against Hollowell.
Joining Holton on the All-BIG EAST First Team infield is Creighton junior second baseman Isaac Collins, Xavier senior shortstop Chris Givin, Georgetown sophomore third baseman Eddie McCabe, and St. John’s senior catcher Wyatt Mascarella. Collins batted .244 with 19 hits and 12 RBI. Givin was a unanimous pick as the shortstop as he batted .309 with 21 hits in 16 games played. He only had one error in the field as he put out 28 and assisted 35 turning five double plays. At third base McCabe batted .344 in 18 games with 11 runs, 22 hits and 11 RBI. Mascarella was a unanimous pick as the catcher. In 18 league games, Mascarella scored 12 times with 18 hits, six doubles and 15 RBI. He walked 14 times. Behind the plate, he committed just one error for a fielding percentage of 0.992.
The All-BIG EAST First Team outfield consisted of Butler’s Harrison Freed, St. John’s junior outfielder Mike Antico and Seton hall junior outfielder Tyler Shedler-McAvoy. Freed batted in a league-best 24 RBI with 28 hit, a .394 batting average and a .732 slugging percentage. Antico, a unanimous pick, led the conference in slugging with a .754 average as he accumulated seven doubles, a triple and four home runs. His .431 batting average ranks second in the league as does his .575 on-base percentage. He led the BIG EAST in walks with 19. Schedler-McAvoy scored 17 times with 27 hits, three being triples, seven doubles. Shedler-McAvoy and Antico were co-leaders in stolen bases with six. Shedler-McAvoy committed no errors in the field during league play with 30 putouts, two assists.
Along with Freshman of the Year Lorusso, the All-BIG EAST Second Team featured senior lefty pitcher Denson Hull, senior righty Evan Johnson, junior outfielder Will Robertson and freshman designated hitter Jared Wegner from Creighton; junior righty starter Jeremiah Burke, senior righty pitcher Jack Cushing, grad student outfielder Kyle Ruedisili and senior second baseman Ryan Weisenberg from Georgetown; junior right-handed starter Ricky DeVito and junior first baseman Matt Toke from Seton Hall; and freshman third baseman Jack Housinger, freshman righty reliever Lane Flamm, junior catcher Natale Monastra and senior first baseman Matt Warkentin from Xavier.
2019 BIG EAST Major Awards and All-Conference Teams
Player of the Year
Jake Holton, Creighton, Jr., 1B
Pitcher of the Year
Mitch Ragan, Creighton, Sr., RHP
Freshman of the Year
Nick Lorusso, Villanova, Fr., RHP/3B
Coaching Staff of the Year
Creighton, Head Coach Ed Servais
2019 All-BIG EAST First Team
Connor Schultz, Butler, So., RHP
Mitch Ragan, Creighton, Sr., RHP
Joe LaSorsa, St. John’s, Jr., LHP
^Conor Grammes, Xavier, Jr., RHP/DH
Gavin Hollowell, St. John’s, Jr., RHP (RP)
^Jake Holton, Creighton, Jr., 1B
Isaac Collins, Creighton, Jr., 2B
^ Chris Givin, Xavier, Sr., SS
Eddie McCabe, Georgetown, So., 3B
^ Wyatt Mascarella, St. John’s, Sr., C
Harrison Freed, Butler, Jr., OF
^ Mike Antico, St. John’s, Jr., OF
Tyler Shedler-McAvoy, Seton Hall, Jr., OF
2019 All-BIG EAST Second Team #
(listed alphabetically by school)
Denson Hull, Creighton, Sr., LHP
Evan Johnson, Creighton, Sr., RHP
Will Robertson, Creighton, Jr., OF
Jared Wegner, Creighton, Fr., DH
Jeremiah Burke, Georgetown, Jr., RHP
Jack Cushing, Georgetown, Sr., RHP
Kyle Ruedisili, Georgetown, Grad., OF
Ryan Weisenberg, Georgetown, Sr., 2B
Ricky DeVito, Seton Hall, Jr., RHP
Matt Toke, Seton Hall, Jr., 1B
Nick Lorusso, Villanova, Fr., RHP/3B
Jack Housinger, Xavier, Fr., 3B
Lane Flamm, Xavier, Fr., RHP (RP)
Natale Monastra, Xavier, Jr., C
Matt Warkentin, Xavier, Sr., 1B
^ - denotes unanimous first team selection
# - there are 15 players on the BIG EAST Second Team due to a tie in voting.