Missouri State sophomore designated hitter Ben Carlson is MSU’s seventh first-team All-American in baseball and sophomore righthander Tim Clubb has added a fourth All-America honor with his second-team spot on the American Baseball Coaches Association/Rawlings All-America Team, it was announced Sunday afternoon.

Carlson started all 57 games as Missouri State’s designated hitter and batted .379 with a Missouri Valley Conference leading 17 home runs and team-high 67 RBIs, both of which were the highest totals for a Bear since Ryan Howard in 2000.

Carlson was a first-team all-MVC choice, first-team MVC Scholar-Athlete pick, MVC Player of the Week on April 21 and a third-team CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American as well.

The Topeka, Kan., native is the first player in school history to reach All-America status in baseball for both athletic and academic performance in the same season.

Clubb completed the 2008 season with a spectacular 11-0 record and 2.52 ERA while earning MVC Pitcher of the Year honors. He left all 14 of his starts in line for the win, struck out 82 batters and limited opponents to a .233 batting average.

Clubb’s 11-0 start eclipsed Jarrod Mays’ 10-0 start in 1995 as the best for a pitcher in school history, while his win total ranks second all-time at MSU for a season and his 103.2 innings rank fourth.

A native of Eureka, Mo., Clubb was also honored as a first-team All-American by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper, a second-team choice by both Ping! Baseball and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association, won MVC Pitcher of the Week twice this season and was the Scholar-Athlete of the Week three times.

This is the first time in MSU history that two players have earned first-team All-America honors in the same season.