All-America awards continue to roll in for former Bradley outfielder Mike Tauchman (Palatine, Ill./William Fremd H.S.), who today was named to the second team squads by both Baseball America magazine and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association.
Tauchman, who also earned second-team Louisville Slugger All-America honors from Collegiate Baseball newspaper last month, becomes the first-ever Bradley player to be recognized by Baseball America and joins Doug Robertson (1996) as the second Brave recognized by the NCBWA.
A finalist for the inaugural Gregg Olson Award as college baseball's “Breakout Player of the Year,” Tauchman also was a seminfinalist for USA Baseball's Golden Spikes Award as the national player of the year. He was selected by the Colorado Rockies in the 10th round of the 2013 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft last week
The 2013 Joe Carter Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year, Tauchman continues to lead the nation with a .425 batting average and he ranks fourth with a .513 on-base percentage. With Indiana's Dustin DeMuth (.389) the nation's active leading hitter as the College World Series begins this week, Tauchman is in position to become the fourth Bradley Baseball player to lead the nation in a statistical category and the first since Bob Koeppel led the nation by averaging 1.46 RBI's per game in 1971. Pitcher Wyman Carey led the nation with a 0.37 earned run average in 1957 and Joe Napoli led the nation with a .491 batting average in 1960.
Tauchman's .425 batting average in 49 games is the best-ever by a Brave with at least 100 at-bats in a season (Napoli was 27-for-55 during Bradley's 15-game season in 1960) and is the best by a Valley player since Wichita State's Pat Magness led the league with a .464 average in 1998.
Tauchman also leads The Valley by averaging 1.1 runs scored per game and 1.9 runs produced per game (a combination of runs scored, plus runs batted in, minus home runs). He also is second in the league with 28 stolen bases and his eight outfield assists are tied for the seventh-most nationally.
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