Wimmers a Two-Time First Team All-American – Ohio State Buckeyes
6/3/2010 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio State junior right-hander Alex Wimmers was named a Louisville Slugger first team All-American for the second-consecutive season, Collegiate Baseball Newspaper announced Thursday. With the honor, Wimmers joins Steve Arlin as the only Buckeyes to garner first team All-American laurels twice in their career. Arlin accomplished the feat in the 1965 and 1966 seasons.
Despite missing three starts and four weeks of action this season after injuring his hamstring, the Cincinnati native posted a sparkling 9-0 record with a 1.60 earned-run average, good for fifth-best nationally, en route to an unprecedented second-consecutive Big Ten pitcher of the year honor. While becoming the first back-to-back winner of the award in Big Ten history, Wimmers also becomes only the second pitcher to claim the honor twice: Ohio State’s Justin Fry was Big Ten pitcher of the year in 1997 and 1999.
The three lost starts didn’t stop Wimmers, who ranks tied for 16th all-time in Big Ten history with 273 career strikeouts, from leading the league this season in ERA and opposing batting average (.218).
Tuesday Wimmers was named one of 30 semifinalists for USA Baseball’s 2010 Golden Spikes Award. This is the second-consecutive year that Wimmers is a semifinalist for the prestigious award, which will be presented for the 33rd time to the best amateur baseball player in America.
The news that Wimmers is a Golden Spikes Award semifinalist comes in the wake of announcements the past three weeks that he is one of 25 finalists for the Dick Howser Trophy and a quarterfinalist for the College Baseball Foundation’s Pitcher of the Year Award.
