University of Evansville junior shortstop Eric Stamets is one of 25 players included on the most recent watch list released for the 2012 Brooks Wallace Shortstop of the Year Award.
The Wallace Award, sponsored by Mizuno, recognizes the nation’s top shortstop and will be presented on June 30th in Lubbock, Texas, as part of the College Baseball Hall of Fame’s Night of Champions.
After the watch list was narrowed in half from 50 players to 25, Stamets is the only shortstop from the Missouri Valley Conference that remains in contention for the award.
This spring, Stamets was named the MVC’s first-ever Defensive Player of the Year, as well as first team all-conference. A native of Dublin, Ohio, Stamets is an all-around standout player for the Aces with incredible range in the middle infield. Defensively, he helped UE to the nation’s top fielding percentage (.981), finishing the 2012 season with 93 putouts, league-high 199 assists, and only nine errors. He has also totaled 606 assists in his three-year career, becoming the 14th player in the Valley to reach the 600-assist milestone and first-ever Evansville player to do so in just three years.
Stamets also led Evansville at the plate with a .316 batting average, 41 runs, 27 RBI, and 19 doubles, while also ranking first in the MVC and 18th in the nation with 30 stolen bases. Starting 171 consecutive games in his career, Stamets became the second player in UE history to steal 100 career bases, and the first to do so in three seasons. He also is the sixth player in the Aces’ record book to total 200 career hits in less than four years.
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