2019 SEC Baseball Awards announced



Photo: Vanderbilt Athletics

HOOVER, Ala. -- The Southeastern Conference on Monday announced its 2019 Baseball Awards and All-SEC Teams, recognizing standout performances from this season. The 2019 SEC Baseball Tournament will be played Tuesday through Sunday at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.

Vanderbilt's JJ Bleday was named the SEC Player of the Year, Mississippi State's Ethan Small is the SEC Pitcher of the Year, Mississippi State's JT Ginn is the SEC Freshman of the Year, Vanderbilt's Tim Corbin is the SEC Coach of the Year and Tennessee's Garrett Stallings is the Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

Bleday leads the SEC in several offensive categories, including home runs (25), runs batted in (64), slugging percentage (.748) and total bases (160). He became Vanderbilt's single season home runs leader on April 21 and has reached base in 82 of his last 83 games.

Small is 8-1 with a 1.84 ERA in 83.0 inning pitched this season. In SEC games, Small limited the opposition to a .153 batting average and 99, strikeouts, both of which led the league. For the season, Small has struck out 139, which is No. 5 on Mississippi State's single-season strikeouts list.

Ginn is 8-3 with a 3.12 ERA for the Bulldogs. He ranks in the top-10 in the SEC in wins, strikeouts (95) and games started (14). Ginn was twice named the SEC Co-Freshman of the Week.

Corbin, in his 17th season as Vanderbilt's head coach, was voted SEC Coach of the Year for the third time in his career. He led the Commodores to the SEC championship and 45 wins in the regular season. Vanderbilt has been ranked in the top-two nationally for much of the season.

Stallings holds a 3.41 grade point average in supply chain management. He is a Student-Athlete Advisory Council representative, a member of VOLeaders Academy and a past member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll. Stallings is among the SEC leaders with eight wins and a 3.12 ERA.

2019 SEC Baseball Awards

Player of the Year: JJ Bleday, Vanderbilt

Pitcher of the Year: Ethan Small, Mississippi State

Freshman of the Year: JT Ginn, Mississippi State

Coach of the Year: Tim Corbin, Vanderbilt

Scholar-Athlete of the Year: Garrett Stallings, Tennessee

First-Team All-SEC

C: Philip Clarke, Vanderbilt

1B: Tanner Allen, Mississippi State

2B: Justin Foscue, Mississippi State

3B: Austin Martin, Vanderbilt

SS: Grae Kessinger, Ole Miss

OF: JJ Bleday, Vanderbilt

OF: Jake Mangum, Mississippi State

OF: Alerick Soularie, Tennessee

DH/UT: Nelson Maldonado, Florida

SP: Ethan Small, Mississippi State

SP: Emerson Hancock, Georgia

RP: Tyler Brown, Vanderbilt

Second-Team All-SEC Team

C: Cooper Johnson, Ole Miss

1B: Trevor Ezell, Arkansas

2B: LJ Talley, Georgia

3B: Aaron Schunk, Georgia

SS: Casey Martin, Arkansas

OF: Dominic Fletcher, Arkansas

OF: Heston Kjerstad, Arkansas

OF: Antoine Duplantis, LSU

DH/UT: Matt Goodheart, Arkansas

SP: TJ Sikkema, Missouri

SP: Zack Thompson, Kentucky

RP: Matt Cronin, Arkansas

Freshman All-SEC Team

JT Ginn, SP, Mississippi State

Kumar Rocker, SP, Vanderbilt

Doug Nikhazy, SP, Ole Miss

Cole Henry, SP, LSU

Cole Wilcox, SP, Georgia

Patrick Wicklander, SP, Arkansas

Connor Noland, SP, Arkansas

Ryan Bliss, 2B, Auburn

Christian Franklin, OF, Arkansas

Joseph Menefee, RP, Texas A&M

Kendrick Calilao, 1B, Florida

Brett Kerry, RP, South Carolina

SEC All-Defensive Team

C: Cooper Johnson, Ole Miss

1B: Trevor Ezell, Arkansas*

1B: Julian Infante, Vanderbilt*

2B: LJ Talley, Georgia

3B: Austin Martin, Vanderbilt

SS: Cam Shepherd, Georgia

OF: Dominic Fletcher, Arkansas

OF: Jake Mangum, Mississippi State

OF: Zach Watson, LSU

P: Garrett Stallings, Tennessee

*Tie (Ties are not broken)