Two C-USA Players Added to Johnny Bench Award Watch List
April 30, 2008
A pair of Conference USA standouts have been added to the official 47-man watch list for the 2008 Coleman Company Johnny Bench Award, given to the nation's top catcher by the Greater Wichita Sports Association. East Carolina senior Corey Kemp and Rice junior Adam Zornes have been added to the group, which contained Marshall junior Tommy Johnson on its preseason listing. Kemp has played in all 45 games with 39 coming behind the plate and is batting .358. Currently he leads Conference USA and the team with 51 RBI, while also leading the club in home runs (12), total bases (103) and slugging percentage (.624). The Franklin, Tenn. native is the second Pirate catcher to make the official watch list following Jake Smith who took home the 2006 Coleman-Johnny Bench Award. Not only has Zornes started 43 of the 45 games for the fourth-ranked team in the nation, he has rarely come out of a game and caught 90 percent of the team's total innings. Offensively, the slugger is batting a steady .331 and he leads the team in home runs (9). The standout from nearby St. Thomas High School is second on the team in RBI (42) and slugging percentage (.564). Zornes also does something extremely rare in college baseball in that is he calls the pitches for the entire game. With Zornes calling the game, the Owls are 34-11 this season with one of the best team ERA's in Conference USA. The award is named after Hall of Famer Johnny Bench, who was twice selected the Most Valuable Player in the National League and a 14-time All-Star. He won 10 Gold Gloves in his major league career, caught 100 or more games for 13 consecutive seasons and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in January 1989 with the fourth highest percentage of total votes cast. Catchers are nominated for the award by their coaches and the list will be updated to include other candidates until May 5, 2008. The watch list will be narrowed down to ten semi-finalists, whom will be announced May 14, 2008. Statistics will be compiled on each of the semi-finalists and sent to the national voting panel at the end of May for a vote to determine the three finalists. The finalists will be announced June 3, 2008 prior to the NCAA Super Regionals and Major League Baseball Draft. A final vote among the national committee will occur during the College World Series. All finalists will be brought to Wichita and the winner will be announced at the 11th Annual Greater Wichita Sports Banquet on June 27, 2008.
2008 Coleman Company - Johnny Bench Award delivered by AT&T and Papa John's Pizza Watch List Mitch Abeita SR University of Nebraska Brendan Akashian SR College of the Holy Cross Derrick Alfonso SR University of Louisville Billy Alvino JR High Point University Ryan Babineau JR UCLA Matt Behren JR Northern Illinois University Joe Blackburn SR Penn State University Mark Carver SR UNC Wilmington Jason Castro JR Stanford University Trevor Coleman SO University of Missouri Jake Cox JR Charleston Southern University Kurt Davidson SR University of Akron Adam Deleo SR UNC Greensboro Dock Doyle JR Coastal Carolina University Kevin Dubler JR Illinois State University Tim Federowicz JR University of North Carolina Luis Flores JR Oklahoma State University Logan Gelbrich SR University of San Diego Josh Geric SR Cleveland State University Yan Gomes SO University of Tennessee Doug Hogan SR Clemson Tommy Johnson SR Marshall University Mark Kelly JR Southern Illinois Corey Kemp SR East Carolina University Jeff Lanning JR University of New Orleans Ryan Lavarnway JR Yale University Robert Lara JR University of Central Florida Alex Maldonado SR Centenary College Tommy Medica SO Santa Clara University Chris McMurray JR UC Santa Barbara Marc Mimeault JR Georgia State University Blake Murphy SR Western Carolina Sean Ochinko SO Louisiana State University Joe Oliveira JR University of the Pacific Petey Paramore JR Arizona State University John Parham JR Cal State Northridge Tim Park SR College of William & Mary Josh Phegley SO Indiana University Buster Posey JR Florida State University Kevin Reimer JR Canisius College Michael Roberts JR Virginia Military Institute Shea Robin SR Vanderbilt University Adrian Salinas SR Texas A&M Corpus Christi Chris Taylor SR UNC Charlotte Nate Toth SR Radford University Tyler Weber SR Wichita State University Zach Zaneski SR University of Rhode Island Adam Zornes JR Rice University |
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