NCBWA names Deming District 8 Player of the Year

DALLAS — The National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association today named BYU senior Austin Deming the NCAA DI District 8 Player of the Year. 

The Cougar third baseman was previously named 2023 West Coast Conference Co-Player of the Year and was recognized as Third Team All-American by Collegiate Baseball. He joins former BYU All-American Brandon Taylor from 2005 as the second Cougar to be named District Player of the Year in the 25-year history of the award.

Deming, who represents District 8 (Utah, Idaho, New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada, Montana and Wyoming), joins eight other student-athletes who received the award in one of the nine districts. Other NCBWA District Players of the Year include, Jeremiah Jenkins of Maine (District 1), JJ Wetherholt of West Virginia (District 2), Jac Caglianone of Florida (District 3), Rhett Lowder of Wake Forest (District 4), Brock Vradenburg of Michigan State (District 5), Max Anderson of Nebraska (District 6), teammates Dylan Crews and Paul Skenes of LSU (District 7) and Alberto Rios of Stanford (District 9). 

Deming of Santa Clara, Utah, won the WCC regular-season triple crown with a league-leading .418 batting average, 19 home runs and 68 RBI during the 2023 season.

He led the WCC in nine offensive categories during the 2023 regular season. In addition to batting average, home runs and RBI, he also led the league in slugging (.915), total bases (151), hits per game (1.68), RBI per game (1.66), home runs per game (.46) and doubles per game (.56).

Deming was also a semifinalist for the prestigious Dick Howser Trophy, awarded annually by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association to the nation’s top college baseball player.

Nationally, Deming finished the regular season ranked top 10 in seven offensive categories, including, No. 1 in doubles per game, slugging (2nd), RBI per game (4th), HR per game (6th), batting average (9th), doubles (9th) and hits per game (10th).

A two-time First Team All-WCC honoree, Deming played in 171 games in his BYU career from 2019-23. Over the past two seasons he was named WCC Player of the Week three times and was recognized as national player of the week by four different organizations on April 7 during the 2023 season. 

In addition to all the success on the field, Deming graduated from BYU in April 2023 with a degree in communications, with a journalism emphasis.