June 10, 2015
NCBWA All-America Teams
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Missouri State's parade of postseason accolades continued Wednesday, as pitchers Bryan Young and Matt Hall were tabbed for All-America honors by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association. Young earned a spot on the baseball writers' top squad, joining Hall--who was chosen for the NCBWA's second team--as the second set of MSU teammates to earn first-team All-America recognition in the same season.
Young, who becomes MSU's 10th first-team All-American, is one of five finalists for the NCBWA's Stopper of the Year Award, given annually to the top relief pitcher in NCAA Division I baseball. The redshirt sophomore from Kansas City led the Bears with a Missouri State single-season record 16 saves--which rank third nationally--to go along with a 1.30 earned run average, while logging a perfect 7-0 mark overall and holding the opposition to a .197 batting average over 41.2 innings spanning 30 outings.
Young was nearly unhittable in Valley play, recording a conference-high six saves and five wins while allowing just one unearned run on eight hits over 19.1 innings en route to earning first-team All-MVC recognition. The MSU closer earned third-team Louisville Slugger All-America honors from Collegiate Baseball in late May.
Coupled with Hall's selection as a first-team All-American by Collegiate Baseball, Young's selection to the NCBWA's top All-America squad gives the Bears a pair of first-teamers in a single season for just the second time in school history. In 2008, designated hitter Ben Carlson earned first-team honors from the ABCA, while pitcher Tim Clubb picked up top honors from Collegiate Baseball, marking the only other time in program history two Bear teammates have been honored with first-team All-America status.
Hall, who as selected by Detroit in the sixth round of the 2015 Major League Baseball Draft on Tuesday, shattered both the Bears' and Missouri Valley Conference's single-season records for strikeouts with an NCAA Division I-best 171 K's this spring. The junior from Lee's Summit, Mo., also matched a Missouri State record with 12 victories, while his 2.02 ERA was the best among all Valley starting pitchers. He logged seven double-digit strikeout totals in his 16 starts and led the league with 125.0 innings pitched, which also represents a new MSU single-season high. Hall's 12.31 strikeout-per-9.0 innings pitched rate is not only the top mark in the country, but also the best in school history, while his 275 career strikeouts is third in Missouri State history.
The left-hander turned in a streak of 32.0 consecutive scoreless innings as part of the Bears' school-record 19-game win streak and his 2.66 career earned run average ranks eighth all-time at MSU. He struck out 15 batters in a May 2 win over Wichita State before capping his season with a memorable complete-game one-hitter of Arkansas this past weekend to force a third and deciding game at the Fayetteville Super Regional.
Through two rounds of voting by the NCBWA membership, three All-America squads consisting of a total of 58 Division I players were selected. Eighteen different conferences and 10 conference championships teams are represented on the teams. The three All-America squads are also made up of 13 conference players of the year, nine conference pitchers of the year winners and nine first-round draft picks in the recent Major League Baseball Amateur Draft.
Founded in 1962, the NCBWA is dedicated to the advancement of college baseball. Membership is open to writers, broadcasters and publicists of the sport.
