Putnam Selected District Player of the Year by NCBWA
6/8/2007 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
DALLAS, Texas -- University of Michigan sophomore starting pitcher and designated hitter Zach Putnam (Ann Arbor, Mich./Pioneer HS), a two-time All-Big Ten Conference selection, was named winner of the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Player of the Year Award for District V on Friday (June 9). District V covers Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin.
Putnam
Putnam, one of nine district winners, enters NCAA Super Regional play this weekend (June 9-11) in Corvallis, Ore., against Oregon State with an 8-4 record with a 4.13 earned run average after beating Memphis in the NCAA Nashville Regional opener. He is hitting .341 (74-for-217) with eight homers.
Putnam, who was the first player in Big Ten history to earn first team all-conference honors at two positions in the same year -- as a starting pitcher and designated hitter -- enters the Super Regional ranked second in the Big Ten in pitching strikeouts (79 in 93.2 innings) and runs batted in (59). Putnam was a second team All-Big Ten selection as a starting pitcher in 2006. Putnam fell to second in the Big Ten RBI race when junior 1B Nate Recknagel (Lake Orion, Mich./Lake Orion) had seven RBI while winning MVP honors in the NCAA Nashville Regional.
Putnam, a draft pick of the Detroit Tigers out of high school in June of 2005, has a 14-6 career pitching mark with 108 strikeouts. He has 23 of his 24 career multiple-hit games this year, has hits in 46 of the 59 games played by the Wolverines this season, and leads the team with nine game-winning RBI. He has hit in the cleanup position in all 59 games this season, with 53 starts as the DH and six starts in leftfield. He has 14 starts as the starting pitcher/DH.
During the season Putnam has won the season opener, home opener, Big Ten opener and NCAA Regional opener on the mound. He was 4-1 and hit .382 in Big Ten-only action.
Putnam is the second Wolverine to win the district award in the past three seasons. All-America 2B Chris Getz (2004-05) was the top player in District V as selected by the NCBWA in 2005.
Contact: Jim Schneider (734) 763-4423
