2nd baseman Brock Hebert, formerly of Southeastern, earns All-America honors
Jun 22, 2012 | 432 views | 0 0 comments | 4 4 recommendations | email to a friend | print

DURHAM, N.C.— For the fourth time this season, former Southeastern Louisiana second baseman Brock Hebert earned All-America honors Friday as Baseball America named its 2012 teams.

The junior from Bourg, La., a 14th-round selection of the Seattle Mariners in the 2012 Major League Baseball Draft, was named to the magazine's third team. He is also a member of the Louisville Slugger, National Collegiate Baseball Writers and the American Baseball Coaches Association/Rawlings teams.

Hebert is both the Southland Conference Player of the Year and hitter of the year. He led the conference in average (.374), runs scored (58) and stolen bases (36). His stolen base total ranks sixth nationally.

Joining Hebert are fellow in-state players Kevin Gausman and Raph Rhymes of LSU. Gausman was named to the second team while Rhymes joined Hebert on the third team.

College Player of the Year Mike Zunino headlines Baseball America's 2012 College All-America team.

Few players have had more of an impact on college baseball over the last three years than Zunino, a junior catcher for Florida. His offensive numbers this spring were robust: He tied for fourth in the nation with 19 home runs, ranked 10th with 67 RBIs, third with 28 doubles, 11th with a .669 slugging percentage and fifth with 164 total bases. He finished the year hitting .322/.394/.669, and he did it while playing rock-solid defense behind the plate—baseball’s most physically demanding position. His combination of offensive production, quality defense, superb leadership and remarkable durability (he started at catcher in 62 of Florida’s 67 games) made Zunino the No. 3 overall pick in the draft, and it makes him BA’s Player of the Year.

Zunino is the only member of BA’s 2011 All-America first team to repeat as a first-teamer in 2012. Fittingly, the only other repeat All-American is the player Zunino edged out for Player of the Year honors—Florida State center fielder James Ramsey, a third-teamer last year who earns first-team honors this time around.

Zunino is one of just two members of our preseason first team (chosen by major league scouting directors) to appear on our postseason first team; the other is Stony Brook outfielder Travis Jankowski. Six other first-team preseason All-Americans made our second and third teams at the end of the season: Brian Johnson, Mark Appel, Kevin Gausman, Stephen Piscotty, Tyler Naquin and Marcus Stroman. Ramsey and Michael Wacha were second-teamers in the preseason who made our postseason teams, while Kris Bryant was a third-teamer in the preseason, but a first-teamer at season’s end. Overall, just 11 preseason All-Americans made our postseason teams, down from 12 last year and 18 in 2010.

Florida, which set a record with seven preseason All-Americans, landed just two players on our postseason teams. Florida State is the only team with multiple first-teamers (Ramsey and closer Robert Benincasa). Stony Brook, which reached the College World Series for the first time in 2012, leads all schools with three All-Americans: Jankowski, second-teamer Willie Carmona and third-teamer Tyler Johnson. Florida, Florida State, Arizona, UCLA, Louisiana State, Texas A&M, Baylor, Stanford and New Mexico each landed two players on our All-America teams.

The four power conferences are represented fairly evenly on the three teams. The Pac-12 leads all conferences with eight All-Americans, followed by the SEC and Big 12 with six apiece, and the ACC with five.

In a banner year for seniors, eight seniors made BA’s three All-America teams. That’s twice as many as last year; in 2010, just one senior made the teams.

The staff of Baseball America selected the All-America teams after the first weekend of the College World Series. For more information on Baseball America magazine, visit www.baseballamerica.com

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