Hokie ClubBLACKSBURG – Despite the abbreviated season, Collegiate Baseball Newspaper still recognized and honored more than 80 baseball student-athletes today as the organization announced its 2020 NCAA Division I All-American baseball teams, powered by Diamond Sports. Two Virginia Tech players have been named to the squad as Carson Taylor and Ian Seymour earned spots on the third team (to see the full teams, click on the link below).
Taylor and Seymour are just the 16th and 17th Hokies, all-time, to be named a baseball All-American (22 overall selections), are the first to be honored since 2013 (Tyler Horan) and are the first pair of teammates to earn All-America status in the same season since 2003 (Matt Dalton and Marc Tugwell).
A sophomore catcher from Duluth, Georgia, Taylor was one of four Hokies to start all 16 games and led team in almost every offensive category while finishing ranked in the NCAA in 13 categories. During the season, had a team-best seven multi-hit games, including two with four, added a team-high four multi-RBI games, including a career-high five, and led the team with five multi-run scoring games, scoring a career-high tying four times once.
He ended the season on a career-best six-game hitting streak, as he raised his batting average from .364 to .431. In fact, Taylor entered the Bryant series with a .308 batting average and raised it 123 points over the last nine games of the year. He also reached base in the last 12 games played.
Taylor led the team with a .431 batting average, 25 hits, seven doubles, one triple (T-1st) and hit two home runs (second) for a team-best 40 total bases and a .690 slugging percentage. He added team-highs with 19 runs scored, 20 RBI, and 12 walks, one was intentional. He was hit by three pitches (T-1st) for a team-best .541 on-base percentage, hit one sacrifice fly and was 2-for-2 in stolen base attempts.
He scored a team-high four game-winning runs and tied for the team-best with two game-winning RBI. In the field, he did not commit an error in 137 chances for a 1.000 fielding percentage and threw out two base stealers. Also, just before the season ended, Taylor was named to teh 2020 Buster Posey National Collegiate Catcher of the Year Award Watch List.
In the final NCAA rankings, he was 27th in on-base percentage, 32nd in batting average, 34th in doubles, 35th in RBI, 37th in RBI per game (1.25), 45th in runs per game (1.19), 49th in runs, 50th in hits, 59th in doubles per game (0.44), 64th in slugging percentage, 69th in hits per game (1.56), 70th in total bases and 81st in toughest to strikeout (11.6 per at-bat, just five times).
Seymour, a junior pitcher from Westborough, Massachusetts, was phenomenal during the 2020 campaign. He was twice named a Collegiate Baseball National Player of the Week (Feb. 24 & March 9), while starting all four games he appeared in, which was tied for the most on the team, and recorded a team-best two quality starts.
He finished with a 2.21 ERA in 20.1 innings pitched and struck out a team-high 40 batters, while walking just five. He posted a 3-0 record, which led the team in wins, and combined on one shutout - at Louisiana (Feb. 23) after tossing the first six frames.
Seymour threw a season-high 6.0 innings twice, the other at No. 29 Georgia Tech – a game in which he struck out a school record, in an ACC regular season game, 14 Yellow Jackets. Seymour struck out at least six batters in all four outings, leading the team, which also included 11 Ragin' Cajuns. He struck out the side six times during the year and held opponents to a .181 batting average, second-best on the team among pitchers with at least 4.0 innings thrown.
He had a total of 16 scoreless innings, including a 11.1 consecutive, and also threw eight perfect frames (first) and, at one point, retired 10 straight batters (first). In the NCAA, he finished the year ranked in six categories - fourth in strikeouts per nine innings (17.70), 18th in strikeouts, 23rd in wins, tied for 29th in starts, 51st in strikeout-to-walk ratio (8.00) and 101st in WHIP (0.89).
To view the entire All-American release, CLICK HERE.