OMAHA, Neb. – Former Mercer University outfielder Kyle Lewis was named to the American Baseball Coaches Association/Rawlings Gold Glove Team on Sunday morning, further continuing his impressive haul of national awards following a stellar junior campaign.
The Gold Glove honor comes the day after Lewis – the No. 11 overall pick by the Seattle Mariners in 2016 MLB First-Year Player Draft on June 9 – earned the ABCA/Rawlings Gold Bat Award as the National Player of the Year. This is the first collegiate fielding award he’s earned.
The Snellville, Ga., native, who started all 61 games for the Bears in center field, posted a perfect fielding mark of 1.000 this spring. He logged 143 putouts and two assists to go along with numerous web gems throughout the season.
Lewis was one of nine players named to the Gold Glove Team, joining Kentucky’s Evan White (1B) and Dustin Beggs (P), Louisville’s Will Smith (C), Indiana’s Tony Butler (2B), Missouri State’s Jake Burger (3B), Long Beach State’s Garrett Hampson (SS), South Alabama’s Cole Billingsley (OF) and Oregon’s Austin Grebeck (OF).
Lewis established himself as one of college baseball’s premier position players this spring and has earned honors such as Baseball America’s Collegiate Player of the Year, and four first-team All-America nods by the ABCA/Rawlings, Baseball America, Louisville Slugger and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association.
He additionally helped the Bears to a 38-23 record – Mercer’s seventh straight season with 35 wins or more – and a second straight SoCon regular season championship while being named the Southern Conference Player of the Year for a second straight season.
The ABCA/Rawlings Gold Glove Team is selected by the ABCA All-America committee, which is chaired by Dean Ehehalt of Monmouth University. The committee also includes head coaches Mike Stone (Massachusetts), Brian O'Connor (Virginia), Tim Corbin (Vanderbilt), Steve Jaksa (Central Michigan), Dan Heefner (Dallas Baptist), Tommy Raffo (Arkansas State) and George Horton (Oregon).