LUBBOCK, Texas – Appalachian State’s Will Callaway and Western Carolina’s Aaron Attaway are two of just 14 players on the latest official watch list for the Brooks Wallace Award, which is presented to college baseball’s top shortstop, the College Baseball Hall of Fame announced on Sunday.
Callaway is a Wallace Award candidate for the second straight year after hitting .350 with 12 doubles, four home runs, 37 RBIs, 40 runs scored and 13 stolen bases in 47 regular-season games.
After a relatively slow start to the season, Callaway has been one of the nation’s best players over the second half of the campaign, regardless of position. Since April 2, he has hit safely in 25 straight games and is batting a whopping .413 (45-for-109) with 26 RBIs, 24 runs scored, a .587 slugging percentage and 14 multi-hit games during that stretch. The 25-game hitting streak is tied for the second-longest in Appalachian State history and is just two games shy of the school record of 27, set by Rand Smith in 2009.
Callaway was one of 25 finalists for the Wallace Award last season, when he hit .320 with 12 doubles, four home runs and 53 RBIs to help lead Appalachian to a Southern Conference championship, the championship round of the NCAA Charlottesville Regional and within three wins of its first-ever College World Series.
In addition to the Brooks Wallace Award watch list, Attaway was additionally listed among 40 semifinalists for the 2013 Dick Howser Trophy, presented by Easton Foundations and released by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA). The award, given to the top player in collegiate baseball, is based on two rounds of national voting.
Attaway finished the regular season leading the Southern Conference in both base hits (89) and runs scored (64). He enters the postseason just 13 hits shy of Brent Greer’s WCU single-season record of 102 hits set back in 2009. His 89 hits already rank him tied for 19th in program history, tied with Roy Hurst, who collected 89 in 1994.
Attaway is eighth in the SoCon this season with a .352 batting average, while his four triples rank tied for third in the conference this season. He has 30 extra-base hits to date, including individual career highs with 15 doubles and 11 home runs. His career-high 49 RBIs are second on the team and his 11 stolen bases put him third on the ledger. His .573 slugging percentage ranks him 10th in the SoCon.
In the field, the Morganton, N.C., native has been very solid for the Catamounts at shortstop. Attaway has been a part of turning 31 of WCU’s 44 combined double plays this season. He has 158 fielding assists and 81 putouts in a combined 254 chances in the field.
Callaway and Attaway are two of only five 2013 Wallace Award candidates that hail from outside of NCAA Division I’s six “power conferences” (ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big XII, Pac 12 and SEC). The Southern Conference is the lone “mid-major” conference with multiple candidates.
The 2013 Brooks Wallace Award, sponsored by Mizuno, will be presented during the College Baseball Hall of Fame’s Night of Champions on June 29 in Lubbock, Texas.
Callaway and the fifth-seeded Mountaineers open the 2013 Southern Conference Championship on Wednesday when they take on No. 4-seeded The Citadel at 10 a.m. Attaway and the top-seeded Catamounts follow against No. 8 seed Samford at 1:30 p.m. The SoCon Championship is being held at Fluor Field in Callaway’s hometown of Greenville, S.C.
2013 BROOKS WALLACE AWARD WATCH LIST
J.J. Altobelli (Oregon)
Aaron Attaway (Western Carolina)
Michael Basil (Indiana)
Alex Bregman (LSU)
Will Callaway (Appalachian State)
Branden Cogswell (Virginia)
Vince Conde (Vanderbilt)
Hunter Dozier (Stephen F. Austin)
Austin Fisher (Kansas State)
Adam Frazier (Mississippi State)
Tyler Shryock (Cal State Bakersfield)
Trea Turner (NC State)
Pat Valaika (UCLA)
Tyler Vaughn (Troy)