FORT WORTH, Texas – Western Carolina senior shortstop Aaron Attaway was selected Wednesday to the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) preseason All-America team as selected and released by the organization. Attaway was a third-team selection among the 57 baseball student-athletes recognized.
All told, there are players from 17 different athletic conferences and 35 different schools nationwide represented on the three NCBWA preseason All-America teams. Attaway is the lone representative from the Southern Conference listed on the NCBWA’s ledger.
Attaway is the third Catamount in recent years to garner preseason All-America accolades. He joins former standouts Preston Hatcher before the 2013 season (NCBWA) and Ross Heffley prior to the 2010 and 2012 campaigns (Louisville Slugger/Collegiate Baseball).
A product of Morganton, N.C., Attaway is coming off a season in which he was named first-team All-Southern Conference at shortstop while also earning second-team all-state accolades from the North Carolina Collegiate Sports Information Association (NCCSIA). He tied for second on the team with a .363 batting average, including a SoCon-leading 97 base hits – a mark that in addition to representing his career best also ranked him tied for eighth in WCU’s single-season record books, matching 2007 SoCon Player of the Year Kenny Smith. Attaway also paced the SoCon with 68 runs scored, a mark that ranked him seventh in the final NCAA statistics.
Attaway finished with 15 doubles, a team-best five triples and 12 home runs, amassing a .592 slugging percentage – third on the Catamount squad a season ago and 10th in the SoCon. He paced the team with 27 multiple-hit games, including 13 two-hit, nine three-hit and five four-hit outings. Attaway also became one of the few WCU baseball players – and first since the late 1980s at best – to hit for the cycle in a game, doing so in an extra-inning affair at Furman.
Attaway closed the 2013 season with hits in 19 of his final 20 games.
A three-year starter in the middle of the WCU infield, Attaway was among the 14 finalists for the 2013 Brooks Wallace Award, which is given annually to the nation’s top shortstop, and was tabbed a semifinalist for the 2013 Dick Howser Trophy that honors the nation’s top college baseball player of the year.
For his career, Attaway is a .323 hitter with 230 hits and 143 runs scored, and he is poised to make a run at the career top 10 list in the latter two categories. He has started all 170 games in which he has played during his tenure at Western Carolina.
Season tickets for the 2014 campaign are on sale now through the WCU Athletics Ticket Office. Pricing begins at just $50 for an adult general admission and $25 for a youth for all 30 home dates. Reserved seating options in both field and upper level are available. Call the ticket office at (800) 34-GOWCU or (828) 227-2401, or purchase online at CatamountSports.com.
Western Carolina will gear up for the 2014 season by hosting the fourth "Celebration of Catamount Baseball Fundraising Banquet" on Saturday, Jan. 18, at the Hinds University Center. Former Catamount reliever and current Kansas City Royals closer Greg Holland is slated as the keynote speaker as WCU again celebrates its 2013 SoCon regular-season championship, introduces its 2014 squad and unveils this season’s "Leggett No. 7 Legacy" recipient.