NEWS

 

FORT WORTH, Texas — Three college baseball players are up for the Bobby Bragan Collegiate Slugger Award, and Davidson’s Michael Carico is one of them.

The sophomore catcher joins VCU’s Tyler Locklear and Ivan Melendez of Texas on the list for the fifth annual award, which honors performance at the plate, academics and personal integrity. The winner will be announced later this month and honored at a gala in the fall.

“This is arguably the strongest group of finalists we have ever had for the Bobby Bragan Collegiate Slugger Award, presented by SR Bats,” said Tracy Taylor, executive director of the Bobby Bragan Youth Foundation. “The selection committee reviewed every at-bat of the 59 players on the nationwide watch list and did an outstanding job of identifying the student-athletes that best represent the criteria of the slugger award.”

The honor is the latest in a string for Carico, Davidson’s first Atlantic 10 Player of the Year. He was also recently named to Collegiate Baseball’s All-American Second Team and a finalist for the Buster Posey National Collegiate Catcher Award.

A sophomore from Kernersville, Carico led the country with a .559 on-base percentage and set multiple school records while helping Davidson win 43 games and the program’s first outright regular-season league title.

He set Davidson single-season marks with the .559 on-base percentage, 21 home runs, an .843 slugging percentage, 71 runs scored, 166 total bases, 43 extra-base hits and 26 hit-by-pitches.

The Wildcats’ leadoff hitter, Carico batted .406, which was second in the A-10 and seventh nationally, and he led the conference in home runs, slugging percentage, hit-by-pitches and with 46 walks and a 1.402 OPS. He was third nationally in slugging percentage and seventh in average.

Carico also knocked 21 doubles, had 57 RBIs and 26 multi-hit games, including four four-hit performances. He had 17 multi-RBI games, including a high of six in a two-homer game at Radford in April, and finished the season on a 15-game reached-base streak.

For more on the Bragan Slugger Award, click here.