Brendan McKay named Collegiate Baseball Newspaper’s Player of the Year

By Dalton Ray–

Baseball’s star junior Brendan McKay has been named Player of the Year by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper. The left-handed pitcher and first baseman is the first Cardinal to earn a national Player of the Year honor. McKay shares the 2017 award with Mississippi State’s Brent Rooker, both First Team All-Americans.

McKay heads into the NCAA tournament with a .363 batting average, 17 home runs and 52 RBIs. As a pitcher, he is 9-3 with a 2.37 ERA and 124 strikeouts. McKay is a finalist for the Golden Spikes Award and John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year Award.

Collegiate Baseball Newspaper also named fellow juniors Drew Ellis and Lincoln Henzman as First Team All-Americans.

Ellis is tied with McKay for a team-high in home runs, 17, and leads in batting average with a .376. Ellis, a Jeffersonville, Indiana native, is also a finalist for the Golden Spikes Award.

Henzman is Louisville’s go-to closer, recording a nation-best 16 saves. With a 1.41 ERA, Henzman has pitched 32 innings and recorded 32 strikeouts.

  Photo by Dalton Ray / The Louisville Cardinal