PEORIA, Ill. ? Former Bradley baseball star Ryan Curry (Downers Grove, Ill./South H.S.) and women's golfer Bari-Lynn Erais (Lethbridge, Alberta/Lethbridge Institute) are the winners of the male and female versions of the annual Bradley University Alumni B-Club Most Outstanding Athlete Awards.
Now playing for the Florida Marlins affiliate Jamestown Jammers in the New York-Penn League, Curry was Bradley's starting second baseman this past season and led the Missouri Valley Conference in hitting with a .416 batting average. The Valley's first-team all-conference second baseman, Curry's average was the best-ever by a Brave with at least 100 at-bats during a season and he was the only player in the league to boast two hitting streaks of at least 17 games during the 2007 season. His 87 base hits this past spring were the second-best single-season total in school history and helped him set the school's career record with 263 hits. Curry's hot-hitting and slick fielding helped the Braves to their best season in more than a decade, finishing with a 32-21 final record and claiming third place in both the Valley regular-season race and postseason tournament.
Curry was selected by the Marlins in the 21st round of the 2007 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft and he is currently hitting .351 with 10 runs scored and 17 runs batted in during his first 12 games as a professional.
Bradley's top player throughout the season, Erais capped her sophomore season by claiming medalist honors at the 2007 State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Women's Golf Championship at WeaverRidge Golf Coursem, helping the short-handed Braves to a runner-up finish. Aided by a pair of 70s during the MVC Tournament, which equaled the third-lowest score in program history, Erais' 76.7 stroke average for the season was the second-best in school history, just one-tenth of a stroke off the record mark. In addition to her Valley title, Erais recorded six individual top 10 finishes during the 2006-07 school year.
Curry is just the fourth baseball player to win the Alumni B-Club Most Outstanding Athlete award and the first since Doug Robertson shared the honor with men's basketball star Anthony Parker in 1996. Erais is the third women's golfer to win the award, following Kelly Dillon in 2002 and Meaghan LeBlanc in 2005 and 2006.
To view the complete list of Bradley Alumni B-Club Most Outstanding Athlete winners since 1967 visit http:///www.bubraves.com and click the “B-Club Most Outstanding Athlete” link within the “Awards” menu on the left side of Bradley's official athletics home page.
