For the second straight year, University of Georgia junior Aaron Schunk has been named a finalist for the John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year Award, the College Baseball Foundation announced Thursday.
Schunk leads the National No. 4 seed Bulldogs in batting at .336 with 11 home runs and 45 RBI plus has a team-high 12 saves to with a 1-2 mark and 2.49 ERA. Georgia is 44-15 overall and playing host to an NCAA Regional starting Friday at Foley Field. The Bulldogs face the Mercer Bears at 7 p.m.
Along with Schunk, the other finalists are juniors Tristin English (Georgia Tech), Will Matthiessen (Stanford), sophomore Alec Burleson (East Carolina) and freshman Davis Sharpe (Clemson).
“All season long, trimming this list to semifinalists and now to finalists has proven very difficult due to the outstanding seasons put forth by all our two-way players,” Olerud Award chairman George Watson said. “But these five finalists have differentiated themselves not only through the statistics they’ve racked up but by being leaders of their respective teams. Each one of these finalists is more than deserving of this award.”
The Olerud 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 was inducted into the National College Baseball Hall of Fame in 2007. The award will be presented later this summer.
Previous winners of the Olerud Award include Mike McGee (2010-FSU); Danny Hultzen (2011-Virginia), Brian Johnson (2012-Florida), Marco Gonzales (2013-Gonzaga), A.J. Reed (2014-Kentucky), Brendan McKay (2015-17-Louisville) and Brooks Wilson (2018-Stetson).
For more information on the John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year Award or the College Baseball Hall of Fame, visit www.collegebaseballhall.org.