UF Baseball's Mike Zunino Named To Johnny Bench Award Watch List
Thursday, March 8, 2012 | Baseball
The Greater Wichita Area Sports Commission announced on Wednesday that University of Florida junior Mike Zunino (Cape Coral, Fla.) has been named to the Watch List for the 2012 Johnny Bench Award presented by BaseballSavings.com.
Forty-three catchers were nominated for the award by their coaches. Because the award is given annually to the top Division I catcher, the list will be updated to include other candidates until May 7, 2012.
The 2011 SEC Player of the Year, Zunino leads the top-ranked Gators in an assortment of offensive categories: batting average (.465), slugging percentage (.930), on-base percentage (.520), RBI (15), runs (14) and doubles (five). His five homers match senior Preston Tucker (Tampa, Fla.) for the most on the club and his six walks equal freshmen Taylor Gushue (Boca Raton, Fla.) and Casey Turgeon (Palm Harbor, Fla.) for the team lead entering Wednesday night's contest against Florida A&M.
Bench presented James Madison catcher, Jake Lowery, with the award last June in Wichita, Kan. Zunino and Chris O'Brien of Wichita State University were the other finalists for the award.
2012 Johnny Bench Award presented by BaseballSavings.com Watch List
Milan Adams – Sr. – University of Rhode Island
Will Allen – So. – University of Mississippi
Bo Altobelli – Jr. – Texas Tech University
Jimmy Best – Sr. – George Washington University
Garrett Custons – Jr. – United States Air Force Academy
Toby DeMello – Sr. – Saint Mary's College
Jeremy Dowdy – Sr. – Appalachian State University
Josh Elander – Jr. – Texas Christian University
Carlos Escobar – Jr. – University of Nevada
Jacob Fisher – Sr. – Southeastern Louisiana University
Zachary Fisher – Jr. – New Mexico State University
Chris Forsten – Sr. – The College of William and Mary
Brett Frantini – Sr. – Northern Illinois University
Richard Gonzalez – Fr. – Alabama State University
John Hale – Sr. – Sam Houston State University
Jonathan Harris – Jr. – Gardner-Webb University
Chris Hoo – So. – Cal Poly
Joe Hudson – Jr. – University of Notre Dame
Tyler Jones – Sr. – Long Island University
Spencer Kieboom – Jr. – Clemson University
Dan Klein – Sr. – Kansas State University
Thor Meeks – Sr. – Marshall University
Brad Moss – Sr. – Samford University
Tom Murphy – Jr. – University at Buffalo
Peter O'Brien – Sr. – University of Miami
Joe Pavone – Sr. – University of Connecticut
Colton Plaia – Jr. – Loyola Marymount University
Kevin Plaweck – Jr. – Purdue University
David Roney – Sr. – Wofford College
Tyler Ross – So. – Louisiana State University
Jake Saylor – Sr, – University of Cincinnati
Jeremy Schaffer – Sr. – Tulane University
Ron Shaeffer – Sr. – UC Irvine
Dan Sheppard – Jr. – University of Iowa
Jacob Stallings – Sr. – University of North Carolina
Andrew Stumph – Jr, – Texas State University
Alex Swim – Jr. – Elon University
Steve Tkowski – Sr. – College of the Holy Cross
Luke Voit – Jr. – Missouri State University
J.T. Watkins – Sr. – United States Military Academy (Army)
Matt Wollenzin – So. – Austin Peay State University
Zach Wright – Sr. – East Carolina University
Mike Zunino – Jr. – University of Florida
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