UK's Strieby, Cohen named SEC baseball player, coach of the year

[WildcatRick]

University of Kentucky first baseman Ryan Strieby, who led the Southeastern Conference in five offensive categories this season, was named the league's Baseball Player of the Year today.

Kentucky's John Cohen was unanimously chosen SEC Coach of the Year after leading the Cats to their first overall league championship.

Strieby was the only UK player named to the All-SEC First Team. Second baseman John Shelby and catcher Sean Coughlin made the Second Team. Selections were made by the league's 12 coaches, who were not allowed to vote for their own players.

Strieby led the SEC in doubles (20), total bases (150), slugging percentage (.718), on-base percentage (.474) and RBI (75).

Cohen led the Wildcats to a 20-10 record in conference play and a share of the SEC championship.

Here are the complete All-SEC teams:

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/14647726.htm

[lighthouse]

This is great! I'm so proud of our BatCats.:thumbup:thumbup:thumbup

[CatFanInTheBathtub]

Yeah great but how did Dombrowski not make either team ??

whatta rip off

[WildcatRick]

UK's Ryan Strieby SEC baseball player of year


By Michael Smith
The Courier-Journal


LEXINGTON, Ky. – University of Kentucky baseball coach John Cohen drew more than his share of strange looks when he proclaimed before the season started that junior-college transfer Ryan Strieby would be the best player in the Southeastern Conference.

Did Cohen understand that the reigning SEC Player of the Year, Florida’s Matt LaPorta, was returning for the 2006 season? Did Cohen realize that LaPorta and Strieby both play first base?

As it turns out, he did. As it turns out, Cohen knew exactly what he was talking about.

Strieby, the SEC’s leader in doubles (20), total bases (150), slugging percentage (.718), on-base percentage (.474) and RBIs (75), was named the SEC’s Player of the Year yesterday by a vote of the league’s coaches. His 19 homers were third, just three off the pace.
Not surprisingly, Cohen, who guided the Wildcats’ worst-to-first turnaround, was named Coach of the Year.

For the best offensive team in the conference, the hits just keep on coming.

“It’s been a crazy season,” UK outfielder Collin Cowgill said. “We’ve come up from nothing and we brought a championship back home.”

The Cats (42-13) won the SEC East and tied Alabama with a 20-10 record for the overall league title. They’ll be the No. 2 seed when the league’s tournament starts Wednesday morning at the Hoover Metropolitan Stadium just outside of Birmingham, Ala. The Crimson Tide won the tie-breaker for the top seed by virtue of a better head-to-head record against Georgia, the league’s No. 3 seed.

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060523/SPORTS03/60523032/1002/SPORTS