TCL alumni Kyle Nicholson (Weatherford Wranglers ’05) from Texas A&M and Adrian Alaniz (Coppell Copperheads ’06) from
Texas were named two of 10 semifinalists for the Roger Clemens Award, the Greater Houston Baseball Association announced Thursday. This year’s award will be presented July 11 at the Inter-Continental Hotel Houston.
The 2007 semifinalists are Adrian Alaniz of Texas, Barry Enright of Pepperdine, Preston Guilmet of Arizona, Bryan Henry of
Florida
State , Brian Matusz of San Diego, Adam Mills of Charlotte, Kyle Nicholson of Texas A&M, David Price of Vanderbilt, Nick Schmidt of Arkansas, and Jacob Thompson of
Virginia . This group includes three seniors, four juniors and three sophomores. Six of the 10 throw right-handed.
The 10 were selected during the first round of voting, which ended on May 14. Voters include all Division 1 head baseball coaches, a selection of national media who cover collegiate baseball, the 16 winners of the R. E. "Bob" Smith Award, which was presented to the top player in the country here in
Houston in 1988-2003, and the 10 previous finalists for the Clemens Award. The second round of voting will begin on May 28, with the announcement of the three finalists set for June 7. Jered Weaver of
Long Beach
State (2004), Luke Hochevar of Tennessee (2005) and Andrew Miller (
North Carolina ) were the first three winners of the Clemens Award.
All 10 pitchers are among the leaders statistically in college baseball. All have won at least nine games during the current season, topped by Henry’s 13-0 mark for the Seminoles. Mills is second nationally in earned run average at 1.13 for Charlotte, Price ranks third in strikeouts per nine innings (12.7) for the top-ranked Commodores, and Matusz leads the nation with 152 strikeouts in 111.0 innings.
Among the semifinalists, Alaniz is 12-2 with a 2.37 ERA, Enright is 11-4 and 1.78, Guilmet is 10-1 and 1.70, Henry is 13-0 and 2.37, Matusz is 10-2 and 2.43, Mills is 11-2 and 1.13, Nicholson is 11-1 and 1.74, Price is 9-0 and 2.91, Schmidt is 9-2 and 2.95, and Thompson is 10-0 and 1.48.
Six of the nation’s top baseball conferences are represented in the group. There are two players each from the
Atlantic
Coast , Big 12, Big West and Southeastern conferences, and one each from the Atlantic-10 and Pac-10 conferences.
The Roger Clemens Award was named after future Hall of Famer Roger Clemens, who began his march to stardom while leading the
University of
Texas to the College World Series title in 1983. As a professional, Clemens has won 348 games (eighth best in history), fanned more than 4,600 batters and won and seven Cy Young Awards, emblematic as the top pitcher in his league. The Roger Clemens Award is the only award of its kind, honoring the finest pitchers in college baseball.
