Gators C Zunino reels in All-American honors

Florida Gators sophomore catcher Mike Zunino has been named an All-American by all three major voting bodies, though each organization placed him on a different team.

Baseball America announced Wednesday that Zunino was a first-team All-American: “The Southeastern Conference Player of the Year, Zunino was a beast against elite SEC competition. In conference games, he led the league in slugging (.750), runs (36), RBIs (33) and doubles (14) and ranked second in batting (.422), OBP (.477) and homers (eight).”

Earlier in the day, the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) named Zunino a third-team All-American behind Wichita State’s Chris O’Brien (first team) and James Madison’s Jake Lowery (second team). Lowery joined Zunino on the first team but O’Brien was left off Baseball America’s All-American teams.

Zunino had previously been tabbed as a second-team Louisville Slugger All-American by the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper on June 2. That organization picked Lowery for its first team and placed O’Brien alongside Zunino on the second team.

No. 2 Florida baseball (50-17) opens the 2011 College World Series on Saturday at 7 p.m. against No. 7 Texas in Omaha, NE.

Photo Credits: The News-Press, John Korduner/Icon SMI