By Mike Lehman, TTU Sports Information
To view the Collegiate Baseball 2017 Pre-Season All-American selections, click here.
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – With the 2017 college baseball season quickly approaching, the time has come to begin recognizing the top talent returning at the Division I level and Tennessee Tech sophomore Kevin Strohschein has been selected as one of those top talents to keep an eye on for the new year.
After producing at a record-breaking pace in his rookie campaign in 2016, the Golden Eagle right fielder has been honored with his selection to the Collegiate Baseball 2017 Pre-Season All-American First Team.
Last season, Strohschein set the precedent for a huge postseason haul of accolades by becoming the first freshman in the 67-year history of the Ohio Valley Conference to take home Player of the Year honors. In the same banquet he also represented the OVC's Rookie of the Year and earned a place on the All-OVC First Team and OVC All-Freshman Team.
He followed that up with his selection as a Louisville Slugger All-American Third Team honoree by Collegiate Baseball newspaper. Additionally, the McDonough, Ga. native has earned a place on the 2016 National Collegiate Baseball Writer's Association (NCBWA) Freshman All-American First Team and captured one of the highest honors ever presented to a Golden Eagle athlete, earning a share of the 2016 Louisville Slugger National Co-Freshman Player of the Year award named by Collegiate Baseball newspaper with the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Player of the Year, Seth Beer. He also represented Tech on the Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American Team named by the same organization.
Strohschein also earned Perfect Game/Rawlings All-American Honorable Mention, Baseball America Freshman All-America First Team and Perfect Game/Rawlings Freshmen All-American First Team honors.
He represents one of just three outfielders selected to the First Team, a group that also includes last year's Dick Howser Trophy winner in Clemson's Seth Beer and Vanderbilt's Jeren Kendall, whom many MLB Draft experts have tabbed as the top collegiate hitter heading into the 2017 season.
The honor marks the highest preseason accolade presented to a Golden Eagle ball player, and the most significant since former Tech great Chad Oberacker took home Second Team honors from the same organization.
Strohschein littered his name all over the program's record book, breaking freshman records for hits, doubles, home runs, RBI, runs, and total bases. He clubbed a team-high 15 long balls on the year while racking up the third-most RBI in school history by driving in 73 runs.
The youngster's 90 hits tied for the third most by a Golden Eagle ever and his 21 doubles and 15 home runs each ranked in the top 10 in program history. Strohschein's .393 average and .707 slugging percentage ranked as the second-best showing by a freshman to only Jim Whaley, who hit .516 and slugged .730 back in 1963. His 39 extra base hits also ranked as a program first by a freshman and finished as the fourth-most ever by a Tech ball player.
He scored 57 runs on the year, one of nine offensive categories he led his squad in on the year. He also made just one error all season, posting an impressive .990 fielding percentage with five assists.
After batting just .242 with three home runs and 12 RBI through his first 16 games, Strohschein went on a tear over his final 37 contests, posting hit streaks of nine, 10 and 15 games. In fact, he went hitless in just three of those match-ups, exploding in an April 5 tilt at Alabama A&M to break or tie three school records. While the team broke and tied two marks in the 34-6 rout, it was the right fielder's performance that shown most brightly.
Strohschein tallied a school-record nine RBI thanks to a program-best six hits while tying the Tech mark for runs scored with six. He also tied the school's single-season grand slam record with his third four-run circus clout of the season in the ninth inning. The performance alone would have been enough to garner him his first OVC Player of the Week honors, but he added more in the weekend series at Eastern Illinois, helping Tech a three-game sweep.
He captured his second OVC Player of the Week and first National Player of the Week accolades after flirting with the national record for consecutive hits, starting off Tech's three-game series with Southeast Missouri a staggering 9-for-9 before a diving effort on a would-be double robbed him of his 10th straight base hit.
Photo by Tony Marable
