The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
Napoleon Named Top Newcomer, Four Blazers Tabbed All-Conference
5/24/2011 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 24, 2011
Complete All-Conference USA Teams
PEARL, Miss. -- Dillon Napoleon was named the Conference USA Newcomer of the Year and a total of four UAB players were selected to the all-conference baseball teams announced Tuesday on the eve of the C-USA Championship presented by Trustmark.
Jamal Austin earned first-team honors as an outfielder, while infielder Nick Crawford joined Napoleon and fellow pitcher Ryan Woolley on the second team. The four combined first- and second-team selections are the most for UAB since C-USA's inaugural season in 1996, while Napoleon's honor is the first major individual award for the Blazers in their C-USA history.
UAB (28-26) opens pool play at the C-USA Championship on Wednesday at 12:30 p.m. CT against top-seeded Rice at Trustmark Park in Pearl, Miss.
Austin, a junior from Kennesaw, Ga., has now been honored three years in a row by the league after earning all-freshman team honors in 2009 and second-team all-conference recognition in 2010. He is leading C-USA in stolen bases for the second straight year with 25 and ranks fifth in the league with a .350 batting average. Austin has scored 35 runs, driven in 28 and continued to use his speed to take away potential hits from opponents in center field, where he has posted a .986 fielding percentage.
Napoleon stepped into the Friday starter role for much of his first season with the Blazers after transferring from Heartland (Ill.) Community College. Despite missing three of his past four starts because of injury, the junior right-hander owns a 5-2 record and ranks in the top five in the league in ERA (2.69) and lowest opponent batting average (.224). Napoleon won his first three starts in conference play, including a complete-game victory over East Carolina, and UAB is 8-4 in games he starts.
Woolley has been one of the most reliable arms in C-USA this spring, logging 99.2 innings on the mound, more than 10 innings better than the next closest pitcher. The senior right-hander from Montclair, Va., ranks fourth in the league in lowest opponent batting average (.228), seventh in wins (6), seventh in strikeouts (70) and ninth in ERA (2.98). Also a member of the league's All-Academic Team, Woolley is the only C-USA pitcher this year with two complete-game victories in conference play.
Crawford, a senior from Cordova, Tenn., made the move from second base to shortstop this year without missing a beat. He started all 54 games and made just seven errors all season while leading C-USA with 190 assists on his way to a .975 fielding percentage. At the plate, Crawford is hitting .315 and has drawn a team-high 40 walks to rank sixth in the conference with a .445 on-base percentage. A former all-freshman team member and UAB's soon-to-be leader in career games played, Crawford tops UAB with 39 runs scored and ranks in the top 10 in the league in stolen bases (17) and sacrifice bunts (12).
UAB's four first- and second-team selections are the third most of any team in the conference this year behind only regular season co-champion Southern Miss (7) and East Carolina (5). The Golden Eagles feature the league's Pitcher of the Year in Todd McInnis and Keith LeClair Coach of the Year in Scott Berry. Chad Zurcher of Memphis was selected as the Player of the Year, while Rice's Austin Kubitza was tabbed the Freshman of the Year.
The Conference USA postseason awards are selected by a panel of voters that consists of the head coach and sports information director for each team and one media member from each of the nine teams' media markets.
Click here for a complete listing of the all-conference teams at conferenceusa.com.
