May 21, 2012

2012 All-Great West Conference Teams

OREM, Utah -- A monster offensive season has landed Utah Valley University senior Goose Kallunki the Great West Conference Player of the Year award while teammate, junior Adam Gunn, has been named the league's Pitcher of the Year. The conference office announced the 2012 All-Great West Conference Baseball Team on the eve of the conference tournament, which will be held in Orem, Utah on the campus of UVU.

Head coach Eric Madsen also received his third straight Coach of the Year award after leading the Wolverines to a perfect 28-0 record in league play. The UVU season has been highlighted by a 32-game win streak and the program's first-ever national ranking.

The Wolverines had nine players named first team All-Conference and two more named to the second team. Willie Pratt, Jake Rickenbach, Kai Hatch, Austin Heaps, Billy Burgess, Sean Moysh and Jeremy Gendlek joined Kallunki and Gunn on the first team. Preston Olson and Ryan Chadwick both received second-team honors.

Kallunki, a senior from Orem, Utah, leads the nation in RBIs with 80 on the season. He is also tops in the GWC with a school-record 17 home runs and a .429 batting average. Last Friday, Kallunki was named a semifinalist for the Dick Howser Trophy, an award handed out by the National College Baseball Writers Association to the top player in collegiate baseball.

Gunn, junior from Santa Clara, Utah, posted an 8-3 record during the regular season, including a 5-0 mark with one save in Great West action. He had a league-leading 1.01 ERA in GWC-only games and a 3.70 ERA with 69 strikeouts for the season. Gunn is a two-time GWC Pitcher of the Week winner.

North Dakota's Jeff Campbell was selected Newcomer of the Year. The freshman from Clearwater, Fla., played both first base and pitcher in his first year with the Fighting Sioux and is tied for the lead among all Division I freshmen with 11 home runs.

The nine first-team honorees for UVU surpasses the 2010 team which had six. Among the Wolverine players to receive repeat first-team honors are Hatch and Gendlek while Kallunki, Burgess, Heaps and Chadwick are all repeat All-Conference selections.

The seven position players are part of a Wolverine club that ranks first in the country in team batting (.349), runs (481), hits (657), RBIs (434), slugging (.522) and on-base percentage (.432).