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Four Commodores named All-American
Vanderbilt leads nation with four selections
Nashville, Tenn. – Baseball America announced
the publication’s All-America teams today with four Commodores
being named to the second team.
Pitchers Grayson Garvin and Sonny Gray join third baseman Jason
Esposito and first baseman Aaron Westlake on the 48-player list. With
four players on the team Vanderbilt led the nation with the most
players selected.
For Garvin it is the second All-American accolade with the lefty
picking up second team honors from Louisville Slugger already. He was
selected as the Southeastern Conference Pitcher of the Year and was
also a first team All-SEC performer. He set the school record for wins
in a single season with 13 and is the first pitcher to ever go 10-0 in
SEC play. Garvin became the eighth first round pick on Tim
Corbin’s watch at Vanderbilt when the Tampa Bay Rays chose him
with the 59th pick.
Gray has been the Friday night starter for Vandy for the past two years
and is second all-time with 27 wins in his career. His hard work was
rewarded when the Oakland Athletics selected him with the 18th overall
pick in last week’s MLB Draft. He will start for the Commodores
on Saturday in the school’s first-ever College World Series game.
Esposito was a pre-season All-American and leads the team with a .357
average and 59 RBI. He is the only player to have played in every game
for VU the last two seasons and was a second round pick by Baltimore.
Westlake matched a school record and became the first Commodore since
1991 to hit three home runs in a game when the slugger belted three
dingers against Oregon State last Saturday. He leads the team with 17
home runs and was a third round pick of Detroit.
The quartet became the first Vanderbilt All-Americans since 2007 when a
school record five Commodores (David Price, Casey Weathers, Pedro
Alvarez, Dominic de la Osa and Ryan Flaherty) earned honors from
various media outlets.
Vanderbilt opens the College World Series on Saturday afternoon at 1
p.m. against North Carolina on ESPN.
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