No. 30-ranked Cougars get WCC honors before league tourney

PROVO, Utah (May 24, 2016)—Accolades for No. 30 BYU, regular season tri-champion, were announced Tuesday by the West Coast Conference.

Topping the list for the Cougars (37-15) are Keaton Kringlen as WCC Freshman of the Year and Brennon Lund and Michael Rucker as First Team All-WCC selections.  Kringlen was also named to the WCC Freshman Team and was Second Team All-WCC.

Colton Shaver was voted Second Team All-WCC.  Brennon Anderson, Tanner Chauncey, Hayden Nielsen and Eric Urry were Honorable Mention All-WCC from BYU.  Daniel Scheemann joins Kringlen on the WCC Freshman Team.  For the complete list of WCC honors see this link.

Rucker (11-0, 2.58) is scheduled to start as BYU’s opening day pitcher against Gonzaga (33-16) on Thursday at 7 p.m. PDT in the WCC post-season tournament at Stockton, California.

“The opening day of our tournament will feature four starting pitchers who will be playing professional baseball soon so it really doesn’t matter who we play," said BYU coach Mike Littlewood.

 “We feel really good about the way we are playing right now, and although we’ve had a couple injuries on the mound we have had guys step up and get the job done.  It’s been a rewarding season and the guys have put it on the line every night, but we all know we haven’t yet reached our main goal of reaching the NCAA tournament."

The Cougars tied with Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s (30-23) for the regular season title and are in the hunt with Pepperdine (28-22) for the automatic berth for the NCAA Regionals from the WCC Tournament.  BYU returned to the national rankings for the second time this month at the No. 30 spot in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association poll.

 “As far as pitching goes we are going to try and win the game we are playing that night,” Littlewood said.  “As thin as we are on the mound, we don’t have the luxury of saving someone for tomorrow when we need to win today."

All of the games BYU plays in the WCC Tournament will be broadcast live by ESPN960 AM, BYU Radio—Sirius 143, with a live video stream on TheW.tv.

For more detailed information, see multi-page PDF below