Drew Thorpe and Brooks Lee Land on ABCA All-America First Team
6/17/2022 12:28:00 PM | Baseball
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SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Cal Poly shortstop Brooks Lee and pitcher Drew Thorpe both have earned spots on the 2022 ABCA/Rawlings NCAA Division I All-America First Team.
Lee was a second-team All-America selection for 2021 by the American Baseball Coaches Association.
Perfect Game also released its All-American teams for the 2022 college baseball season Friday, placing Thorpe on its first team and Lee on the second unit.
Thorpe finished his third season at Cal Poly with a 10-1 record and 2.32 ERA. He currently is second in the nation with 149 strikeouts, fifth in hits allowed per nine innings (5.59), sixth in WHIP (0.86), 13th in strikeouts per nine innings (12.81), 17th with his 2.32 ERA and 24th in strikeout-to-walk ratio (5.96).
Earlier this month, Thorpe landed on Collegiate Baseball Newspaper's All-America first team as well as on the ABCA/Rawlings All-West Region first team. The Washington, Utah, native was one of five finalists for National Pitcher of the Year and, was a semifinalist for both the Dick Howser Trophy and Golden Spikes Award and is Cal Poly's first Big West Conference Pitcher of the Year.
Thorpe is projected to be a first- or second-round pick in the 2022 Major League Baseball Draft next month. He is 17-8 with a 3.03 ERA in three seasons as a Mustang with 284 strikeouts over 223 innings, reaching double digits in strikeouts 13 times. His 149 strikeouts this season is a school record while his 284 career strikeouts is No. 4 in the record book.
Named winner of the Brooks Wallace Award as the nation's top collegiate shortstop on Thursday, Lee hit .357 in his second full season at Cal Poly with 25 doubles, 15 home runs and 55 RBIs. The San Luis Obispo High School graduate led the Big West in hits, walks, doubles, home runs, runs scored, RBIs, slugging percentage and total bases and was second in batting average and on-base percentage.
Lee produced hitting streaks of 19 and 12 games and led the Mustangs with 26 multiple-hit games and 16 multiple-RBI contests, becoming only the second player in Big West history to earn the conference's field player of the year award twice. Mark Kotsay accomplished the same feat in 1995 and 1996.
A five-time All-American honoree a year ago, Lee has already been named to Collegiate Baseball Newspaper's first-team All-American team this spring and also was named a semifinalist for the Golden Spikes Award and Dick Howser Trophy.
Lee, who hit .342 with 10 home runs, 57 RBIS and a school-record 27 doubles a year ago, has positioned himself to potentially be drafted within the top 10 picks of the 2022 Major League Baseball Draft in July.
Thorpe and Lee led the Mustangs to 37 victories this spring, the most since Cal Poly's 2014 Big West championship season, and to a second-place finish in the conference for the fourth time in the last five full seasons. The Mustangs have finished in the top four in the Big West 17 times in the last 19 full campaigns.
The 2022 ABCA/Rawlings NCAA Division I All-America teams feature 10 student-athletes who are participating in the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska. Thorpe and Lee are the only players from Big West Conference schools selected to the ABCA/Rawlings All-America Teams.
First recognized in 1949, the ABCA/Rawlings All-America teams are selected by the ABCA All-America & Coach of the Year committee, which is chaired by Tommy Raffo of Arkansas State. Also on the committee are Dean Ehehalt (Monmouth), Brian Green (Washington State), Dan Heefner (Dallas Baptist), Rick Heller (Iowa), Brian O'Connor (Virginia), Jim Penders (Connecticut), and Butch Thompson (Auburn).
The ABCA/Rawlings NCAA Division I Gold Glove finalists will be announced on Monday, with winners announced on Wednesday. The ABCA/Rawlings National Pitchers and Position Players of the Year will be announced on Monday, June 27.
The ABCA, founded in 1945, is the primary professional organization for baseball coaches at the amateur level. Its over 13,000 members represent all 50 states and 25 countries. Since its initial meeting of 27 college baseball coaches in June 1945, association membership has broadened to include eight divisions: NCAA Division I, II and III, NAIA, NJCAA, Pacific Association Division, High School and Youth.
