Hokie ClubLUBBOCK, Texas – The College Baseball Foundation announced on Friday its preseason watch list for the 2009 Brooks Wallace Award, and a pair of Hokies – catcher Anthony Sosnoskie and second baseman Austin Wates –find their names on the initial list.
Sosnoskie is a junior from Front Royal, Va., who started 45 games behind the plate in 2008. Before missing the final 10 games with an injury, Sosnoskie compiled a .315 batting average, six home runs, 15 doubles, 37 runs batted in and 25 runs scored. He then finished the summer as the runner-up for the Southern Collegiate League MVP after hitting .368 with seven homers and 40 RBI for the Lake Norman Copperheads.
Wates, a sophomore from Richmond, Va., led the Hokies in hitting for much of his stellar debut campaign before cooling off late in the season. He finished the year with a .324 average and team-highs of 70 hits and 15 stolen bases. In addition to adding 10 doubles and 33 RBI, Wates led the ACC with six triples.
The watch list, which can be viewed in entirety here, is narrowed down as the season progresses and is voted on by a national panel of sports information directors, beat writers and college baseball coaches. The 2009 award banquet will be held in conjunction with the College Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremonies and will be at 7 p.m., Thursday, July 2, in the United Spirit Arena on the campus of Texas Tech University. Past winners include Florida State’s Buster Posey (2008), Vanderbilt’s David Price (2007), Houston’s Brad Lincoln (2006), Nebraska’s Alex Gordon (2005) and Cal State Fullerton’s Kurt Suzuki (2004).
The Brooks Wallace Award, which is given annually to the national player of the year, is dedicated to the memory of the former Texas Tech shortstop and assistant coach. Wallace played at Texas Tech from 1977 to 1980. After playing two years in the Texas Rangers organization, he returned to Texas Tech and served as a graduate assistant and later as an assistant coach. In the summer of 1984, he was diagnosed with cancer and fought the disease courageously until his death on March 24, 1985, at age 27.