TUCSON, Ariz. – Five Southern Conference players earned spots on the 2014 Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American team, selected by Collegiate Baseball newspaper.
Georgia Southern’s Ryan Cleveland and Garrett Chapman, Samford’s T.J. Dixon and Heath Quinn and Western Carolina’s Bryan Sammons earned the honor.
Cleveland hit .253 with a team-best 16 doubles and six home runs in 53 games at first base for Georgia Southern, which advanced to a NCAA Regional after winning the Southern Conference tournament.
Chapman became the first Eagle freshman since 1984 to lead the team in batting average. Chapman hit .341 with seven doubles and eight home runs. The freshman started in 59 of the team's 63 games and opened the season with at least one hit in 13 straight games.
Both were named to the Southern Conference's All-Freshman team and are the first GSU freshmen to receive the honor since Chase Griffin in 2012. A total of eight Eagles have been named Freshmen All-American since 1992.
Dixon was named to the SoCon’s All-Freshman team following the regular season. He led the Southern Conference in walks this season with 41. He hit .260 with 10 doubles, two triples and 20 RBIs as the team’s everyday center fielder. He led the team in stolen bases with 19 in 25 attempts. His triples total ranked second on the squad.
Quinn was named the Southern Conference’s Freshman of the Year, and he was named second-team all-conference and all-freshman at the conclusion of the season. He hit .319, ranking third overall on the team, and second among everyday starters. He led the team in doubles with 20, and he ranked second in hits with 73. Quinn tied for second on the team in RBIs with 48, and he tied for third on the squad in home runs with nine.
Quinn and Dixon helped lead the Bulldogs to a 35-25 overall record, marking just the third time the team has won 35 games in program history. The team reached the title game of the Southern Conference tournament for the third time in the last four years.
Sammons, a left-hander, pitched in 21 games for WCU this spring, compiling a 7-2 overall record with a pair of saves to also earn Southern Conference All-Freshman plaudits.
Sammons joins a short list of former Catamounts to have been named to the Freshman All-America squad, becoming the sixth WCU player honored all-time. He joins the most recent selections under head coach Bobby Moranda in first baseman Jacob Hoyle (2012) and second baseman Ross Heffley (2009). Other Catamount honorees include Steven Strausbaugh (2005), Chris Moore (1996) and Phillip Grundy (1991) among the first-year elite in WCU history. Four of WCU’s selections were later drafted by Major League Baseball squads.
A native of Wilmington, N.C., Sammons ranked fourth on the Catamount squad with 60 innings pitched. Moving into the weekend starting role at midseason, the southpaw made 10 starts among his 21 seasonal appearances with an ERA of 4.50. He recorded 57 strikeouts including a career-high seven in three different outings – home wins over UNC Asheville and Davidson and in a defeat to Furman.
In his Western Carolina debut, Sammons recorded 2/3 of an inning to earn his first collegiate save in the season-opening victory over No. 2 Mississippi State. He secured the final two outs in the nail-biting bottom of the ninth inning, inducing a ground ball out to short to ice the Catamount victory. Two games later, he picked up his first career victory in a home shutout of Winthrop, striking out three in three innings of one-hit, shutout relief.
Sammons made his starting debut with five solid innings in WCU’s convincing, 18-10, victory over No. 15 Clemson, pitching around four walks with five strikeouts surrendering four runs – three of which were unearned – on six hits. He tossed a career-long 7 2/3 innings in the starting role in a nonconference win over UNC Asheville.