June 6, 2008
SAN DIEGO - San Diego State right-handed pitcher Stephen Strasburg is one of nine collegiate baseball student-athletes who have been named 2008 National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association of America District Players of the Year as the NCBWA announced its ninth annual awards today. Strasburg, the 2008 MWC Pitcher of the Year, shared the District IX Player of the Year award with Brian Matusz (University of San Diego).
Strasburg capped a phenomenal season by earning Louisville Slugger First-Team All-American by Collegiate Baseball magazine. He is the first SDSU player to receive All-America honors since Royce Ring was a third-team selection in 2002 and is SDSU's first first-team honoree since Travis Lee in 1996.
Strasburg completed his 2008 campaign with a record of 8-3, a 1.57 earned run average and a .181 opponent batting average. He finished among the national leaders in both strikeouts and earned run average.
Strasburg set Mountain West Conference records for strikeouts, ERA and opponent batting average both overall and in league contests. He was named the MWC Pitcher of the Week a record seven times including a stretch of five consecutive weeks when he picked up the award. His 133 strikeouts also broke the SDSU record of 122 set by Rob Brown during the 1989 campaign.
He earned national attention on April 11 when he struck out 23 batters in the Aztecs' contest against Utah in San Diego. It was the third-most strikeouts ever in a college game and the most since 1981. That contest came during a run of six straight games in which he reached double figures in strikeouts.
Strasburg has been invited to the USA Baseball National Trials this summer and will leave next week for the team training camp that begins on June 11 in Keene, N.H.