Baseball's LaPorta and Davis Tabbed As Preseason All-Americans
Wednesday, December 14, 2005 | Baseball
Juniors Matt LaPorta (Port Charlotte, Fla.) and Adam Davis (Fort Myers, Fla.) of the Gator baseball team were named to the seventh annual preseason Division I All-America baseball team chosen by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association of America (NCBWA) on Wednesday. The 2005 SEC Player of the Year and NCAA Division I home run champion, LaPorta was selected to the first team, while Davis was chosen to the third team.
LaPorta is coming off a tremendous sophomore campaign in which he was a consensus first-team All-American. He batted .328 and led the SEC in slugging percentage (.698), runs batted in (79) and round-trippers. The slugger established a school record by being named the league's Player of the Week three times and later joined the USA National Team for its summer tour. Helping the Red, White and Blue to a 16-4 mark, LaPorta socked a team-high four homers.
A third-team All-American in 2005, Davis collected first-team All-SEC recognition and achieved second-team All-South Region status last season. The infielder finished third on the Gators with a .306 average and was second behind LaPorta with 63 RBI. He stole a career-high 24 bases in 31 attempts to lead the squad for the second-straight year and registered six RBI in College World Series play. Also a member of Team USA, Davis Davis ranked fourth on the team with a .313 (21-for-67) batting average and tied for second by scoring 13 runs. He drew a team-high 11 walks and joined three other players in the top spot with five doubles.
Sixteen different Division I conferences have representation on the preseason crew while the starting lineup sports a composite batting average of .362, a total of 105 home runs and 491 RBI. Junior outfielder Shane Robinson of Florida State also returns as the only one of four finalists for the coveted Dick Howser Trophy, presented by the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce and the NCBWA. Robinson batted .427 in 2005 and was one of the runners-up to Dick Howser Trophy Award winner third baseman Alex Gordon of Nebraska last summer.
LaPorta paces all the returnees with 26 round-trippers while three starting pitchers on the first team each nailed down 12 victories in '05. Ian Kennedy of Southern California joined LaPorta and Robinson as three of the returnees from the NCBWA's '05 postseason All-America squad. Graduation and professional signings claimed 15 of the 18 standouts from the NCBWA first team, which was chosen in June 2005.
2006 NCWBA Preseason All-America Team
FIRST TEAM
Pos. Name, School Cl. BA AB R H HR RBI
1B Matt LaPorta, FLORIDA Jr. .328 265 75 87 26 79
2B Chris Campbell, Coll. of Charleston Jr. .379 269 64 102 15 87
3B Jared McGuire, Boston College Jr. .381 215 52 82 6 41
SS Josh Rodriguez, Rice Jr. .345 238 48 82 11 54
C Michael Ambort, Lamar Jr. .336 217 57 73 18 65
OF Brennan Boesch, California Jr. .369 198 33 73 7 33
OF Shane Robinson, Florida State Jr. .427 286 96 122 6 43
OF Drew Stubbs, Texas-32 SB Jr. .311 283 67 88 11 46
DH/ATH Joe Savery, Rice So. .382 204 49 78 5 43
Pitch: 8-5, 2.43 ERA, 19 G, 118.2 IP, 104 H, 37 BB, 129 SO, 1 SV
Pitchers
Pos. Name School Cl. W-L ERA G IP H BB SO SV
SP Nick Hill, Army Jr. 10-2 1.21 14 89 60 19 90 0
SP Max Scherzer, Missouri Jr. 9-4 1.86 16 106.1 59 41 131 0
SP Dallas Buck, Oregon State Jr. 11-1 1.93 15 107 77 42 114 0
SP Ian Kennedy, Southern California Jr. 12-3 2.54 18 117 85 38 158 0
SP Kyle McCulloch, Texas Jr. 12-4 2.92 26 138.2 137 45 99 0
RP Erik Morrison, Ball State So. 7-0 1.32 28 41 31 12 41 15
RP Scott Reese, Creighton Jr. 12-0 2.85 37 88.1 72 28 58 5
RP Daniel Best, Southern Miss Sr. 3-0 0.46 30 39 32 7 37 11
SECOND TEAM
Pos. Name, School Cl. BA AB R H HR RBI
1B Adam Carr, Oklahoma State Sr. .336 235 54 79 22 86
2B Scott Sizemore, Va. Commonwealth Jr. .364 214 57 78 12 56
3B Wes Hodges, Georgia Tech Jr. .397 267 67 106 9 51
SS Mitch Hilligoss, Purdue Jr. .404 228 52 92 4 37
C Chad Tracy, Pepperdine Jr. .367 256 56 94 12 61
OF Jon Jay, Miami (Fla.) Jr. .408 211 50 86 1 52
OF Chad Huffman, TCU Sr. .353 241 54 85 12 53
OF Nathan Southard, Tulane Sr. .341 279 80 95 12 53
DH/ATH Sean Doolittle, Virginia So. .313 224 36 70 11 57
Pitching: 3-2, 1.64 ERA, 22 G, 49.1 IP, 31 H, 18 BB, 28 SO, 0 SV
DH/ATH Brian Pellegrini, St. Bonaventure Jr. .376 170 44 64 11 52
Pitching: 2-3, 1.98 ERA, 27 G, 41 IP, 34 H, 24 BB, 39 SO, 7 SV
Pitchers
Pos. Name School Cl. W-L ERA G IP H BB SO SV
SP Johnny Dorn, Nebraska So. 12-2 2.16 20 104 75 21 76 1
SP Joba Chamberlain, Nebraska Jr. 10-2 2.81 18 118.2 91 33 130 0
SP Andrew Miller, North Carolina Jr. 8-4 2.98 16 96.2 78 52 104 0
SP Jonah Nickerson, Oregon State Jr. 9-2 2.13 18 110 88 29 114 0
SP Tim Lincecum, Washington Jr. 8-6 3.11 16 104.1 62 71 131 0
RP Mark Melancon, Arizona Jr. 5-4 2.58 34 66.1 52 21 69 11
RP Tyler Chambliss, Florida State Jr. 7-3 2.06 39 52.1 36 23 75 15
RP Kevin Gunderson, Oregon State Jr. 6-4 2.76 33 65.1 49 14 62 14
THIRD TEAM
Pos. Name, School Cl. BA AB R H HR RBI
1B Matt Rizzotti, Manhattan So. .416 173 53 72 9 57
2B Adam Davis, FLORIDA Jr. .306 294 75 90 12 63
3B Jay Heafner, Davidson Sr. .448 203 51 91 11 58
(tie) 3B Brad Emaus, Tulane So. .321 262 71 80 13 56
SS Blake Davis, Cal State Fullerton Jr. .325 212 50 69 2 36
C Jeff Kunkel, Michigan Sr. .384 190 28 73 3 45
(tie) C J.P. Arencibia, Tennessee So. .322 283 54 91 14 71
OF Hunter Mense, Missouri Jr. .325 206 62 67 3 42
OF Anthony Wycklendt, Northwestern Sr. .311 193 37 60 10 52
OF Jeremy Jones, North Carolina A&T Sr. .402 204 53 82 4 46
DH/ATH Matt Wieters, Georgia Tech So. .366 227 53 83 10 68
Pitching: 3-3, 2.85 ERA, 26 G, 41 IP, 40 H, 20 BB, 32 SO, 6 SV
DH/ATH Jon Willard, South Carolina Jr. .315 178 23 56 6 30
DH/ATH Justin Baum, Pacific So. .332 190 39 63 17 45
Pitchers
Pos. Name School Cl. W-L ERA G IP H BB SO SV
SP John Ely, Miami (Ohio) So. 10-2 2.87 16 103.1 94 20 108 0
SP James Adkins, Tennessee So. 10-5 3.32 19 127.1 107 51 135 0
SP Adrian Alaniz, Texas So. 8-3 2.67 23 108 93 39 94 0
SP Tim Bascom, UCF Jr. 10-2 3.10 16 113.2 103 29 113 0
SP Jared Hughes, Long Beach State Jr. 8-3 2.83 15 89 67 23 87 0
RP Brett Jensen, Nebraska Sr. 3-5 1.96 33 46 36 9 46 16
RP Blair Erickson, UC Irvine Jr. 1-2 1.80 28 35 16 22 52 10
--UF--
