Virginia's Ryan Zimmerman Named A 2005 Preseason All-American By The National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association

Story Links

Dec. 2, 2004

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – University of Virginia baseball player Ryan Zimmerman (Virginia Beach, Va./Kellam) was named a 2005 Preseason Division I Baseball All-American by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA). Zimmerman, a third-year third baseman at UVa, was selected as a Second Team All-American choice by the NCBWA in the organization’s sixth annual selection of the team.

Zimmerman has been opening eyes and turning heads after his impressive year of performances in 2004 for Virginia. Last season (2004), Zimmerman was named a First Team All-ACC selection. He started all 59 games he appeared in at third base and batted a team-high .361 to go along with a team-high 90 hits including 16 doubles (second on the team), two triples and one home run. Zimmerman was third on the team with 45 RBI, scored 49 runs and racked up 113 total bases. He was successful on 13-of-14 stolen base attempts. Zimmerman set the new UVa single season school-record for most hits (90) and at-bats (249) in a single season at Virginia. He also was named to the 2004 Charlottesville Regional All-Tournament Team.

This past summer, Zimmerman continued to excel on the field by participating with Team USA and helped guide the US to a gold medal in the FISU II World University Baseball Championship. He started 18 of the 24 games he appeared in and led Team USA in batting average (468), hits (36), RBI (27), runs (25), doubles (12), home runs (4), slugging percentage (.805) and total bases (62). He was also successful on 3-of-4 stolen base attempts and posted a .933 fielding percentage.

Zimmerman finished the summer with the US National Team single-season record for batting average at .468 (36-for-77) and hit .375 (9-for-24) with four doubles and a home run to earn tournament MVP honors in the FISU II World University Games. Zimmerman ended up winning the team Triple Crown by batting .468 with four home runs and 27 RBI. He was also named to Baseball America’s 2004 Summer League All-America First Team.

Zimmerman is joined by a host of top-notch talent on the NCBWA’s All-American teams. Standout lefthander Ricky Romero (14-4 last season) of defending NCAA champion Cal State Fullerton joins standout starters Cesar Ramos (12-4) of Long Beach State, Aaron Rawl (13-4) of South Carolina and Jeff Lincecum (10-3) of Washington for a combined 2004 mark of 49-15 while relief aces Will Startup of Georgia, Ryan Doherty of Notre Dame and Blair Erickson of UC Irvine with 40 total saves among them on the first team.

Last summer’s 2004 NCBWA postseason squad featured several solid seniors and many drafted juniors and had just two returnees for the pre-2005 squad. Nebraska 3B Alex Gordon (.365-18 HR-75 RBI) and William & Mary OF Chris Rahl (.389-20 HR-70 RBI) were first team members of the ’04 after-year group.

The ’05 entity included student-athletes from 15 different conferences and is dominated by juniors. There were 30 members of this class, 16 seniors and 12 sophomores on the “dream” team. No freshmen made the squad as committee selection was based largely on 2004 season performances. An almost-all-junior infield (with senior John Mayberry of Stanford representing the fourth-year people) on the first unit includes Mayberry’s Stanford teammate Jed Lowrie at second base, Long Beach State shortstop Tony Tulowitzki and catcher Kiel Thibault of Gonzaga. The top unit outfield features sluggers Rahl, Brad Corley (.380-19 HR-55 RBI) of Mississippi State and Ohio State’s Steve Carvati (.391-9 HR-52 RBI). The first team included five standouts who either were Players of the Year or Pitchers of the Year for their conferences last spring and summer. Relief man Blair Erickson of UC Irvine led the nation with 17 saves in 30 appearances.

The NCBWA second squad includes 12 youngsters whose teams made the ’04 NCAA tournament and Team USA catching stalwart Taylor Teagarden of ’04 NCAA runnerup Texas. Seven of the eight pitchers on the second team had earned run averages under 3.50 against aluminum-bat competition while these standouts averaged almost one strikeout per inning pitched.

On the third team nationally-recognized 2B Justin Turner and OF Danny Dorn of Cal State Fullerton, 1B Michael Paulk (17 homers) of Cal State Northridge, ’04 freshman sensation SS Shelby Ford of TCU, and OF Craig Cooper of Notre Dame are among a cavalcade of talent. Three of the pitchers among that crew posted double-figure wins while the relief trio combined for 26 saves.

Gonzaga’s Thibault leads all hitters selected with a .424 average as a sophomore while nine of the batsmen smashed at least 16 home runs. There are 13 returnees from 2004 NCAA World Series participants CSUF, Texas, Georgia, Arizona, South Carolina, LSU, and Miami (Fla.) on all units. Every team but a balanced 2004 Arkansas squad had representation in the NCBWA advance ’05 balloting. A committee of NCBWA officers and board members chose the 2005 edition after receiving over 300 nominees from 100-plus Division I programs.

2005 Preseason NCBWA All-America Team

First TeamPos. Name, School Class BA AB R H HR RBI1B John Mayberry, Stanford Sr. .333 216 53 72 16 622B Jed Lowrie, Stanford Jr. .399 233 72 93 17 683B Alex Gordon, Nebraska Jr. .365 211 64 77 18 75SS Tony Tulowitzki, Long Beach St Jr. .317 230 40 73 7 44C Kiel Thibault, Gonzaga Jr. .424 205 44 87 3 35OF Brad Corley, Mississippi State Jr. .380 245 60 93 19 55OF Steve Carvati, Ohio State Sr. .391 235 46 92 9 52OF Chris Rahl, William & Mary Jr. .389 229 73 89 20 70DH/ATH Stephen Head, Ole Miss Jr. .348 221 40 77 12 52Pitching: 6-2, 3.08 ERA, 16 G, 61.1 IP, 62 H, 15 BB, 53 SO, 5 SVPos. Name School Cl. W-L ERA G IP H BB SO SVSP Ricky Romero, Cal State FullertonJr. 14-4 3.37 22 155 146 42 126 0SP Cesar Ramos, Long Beach State Jr. 12-4 2.29 19 133.2 108 35 97 0SP Aaron Rawl, South Carolina Sr. 13-4 4.28 20 122 135 17 98 0SP Jeff Lincecum, Washington So. 10-3 3.53 20 112.1 83 82 161 0RP Will Startup, Georgia Jr. 7-2 2.22 33 81 55 23 70 12RP Ryan Doherty, Notre Dame Jr. 5-1 2.45 29 33 18 11 44 11RP Blair Erickson, UC Irvine So. 1-3 4.10 30 37.1 33 21 51 17

Second Team

Pos. Name, School Class BA AB R H HR RBI1B Josh Morris, Georgia So. .315 203 42 64 16 672B Warner Jones, Vanderbilt Jr. .414 268 55 111 11 74(tie) 3B Ryan Zimmerman, Virginia Jr. .361 249 49 90 1 453B Jim Geldhof, Central Mich.-28 SB Sr. .427 227 74 97 9 68SS Cameron Blair, Texas Tech Sr. .371 256 65 95 14 81C Taylor Teagarden, Texas Jr. .273 260 50 71 10 51OF Trevor Crowe, Arizona-26 SB Jr. .350 203 53 71 5 33OF Travis Buck, Arizona State Jr. .373 225 64 84 9 58OF Byron Barber, Coll. of Charleston Sr.-25 SB .410 261 63 107 0 58DH/ATH Dennis Bigley, Oral Roberts Jr. .301 146 30 44 7 29Pitching: 13-1, 2.91 ERA, 16 G, 117.2 IP, 95 H, 25 BB, 100 SOPos. Name School Cl. W-L ERA G IP H BB SO SVSP Wade LeBlanc, Alabama So. 8-4 2.01 16 112.2 87 26 97 0SP Jason Urquidez, Arizona State Sr. 12-3 3.41 19 97.2 90 47 94 0SP Cesar Carillo, Miami (Fla.) Sr. 12-0 2.69 19 113.2 93 43 91 2SP Ian Kennedy, Southern California So. 7-2 2.91 16 92.2 86 31 120 1SP Mark Romanczuk, Stanford Jr. 11-3 4.31 17 108.2 112 39 94 0RP Danny Gil, Miami (Fla.) Jr. 8-0 3.03 27 38.2 23 27 49 5RP Craig Hansen, St. John's Jr. 2-2 2.90 31 40.1 17 16 59 10RP Anthony Rea, Santa Clara Sr. 5-1 1.68 30 53.2 36 10 53 13

Third Team

Pos. Name, School Class BA AB R H HR RBI1B Michael Paulk, Cal State Northridge Jr. .356 225 43 80 17 592B Justin Turner, Cal State Fullerton Jr.-14 SB .304 262 74 84 0 342B Jim Negrych, Pittsburgh So. .378 201 44 76 7 453B Steve Pearce, South Carolina Sr. .346 266 60 92 21 70SS Shelby Ford, TCU So. .301 249 66 75 16 56C Schuyler Williamson, Army Sr. .357 199 52 71 12 48C Jeff Clement, Southern California Jr. .293 198 38 58 10 43OF Danny Dorn, Cal State Fullerton Jr. .318 242 50 77 4 59OF Ryan Patterson, LSU Sr. .341 293 70 100 14 67OF Jon Jay, Miami (Fla.) Jr. .368 234 51 86 6 56OF Craig Cooper, Notre Dame Jr. .360 175 42 63 10 48OF Drew Stubbs, Texas-28 SB So. .301 266 51 80 8 47DH/ATH Brian Bogusevic, Tulane Jr. .339 236 51 80 10 68Pitching: 9-6, 4.19 ERA, 17 G, 111.2 IP, 128 H, 25 BB, 84 SO, 0 SVPos. Name School Cl. W-L ERA G IP H BB SO SVSP Daniel Bard, North Carolina So. 8-4 3.88 16 95 94 31 68 0SP Ronald Hill, UNC-Wilmington Sr. 12-4 3.62 19 104.1 121 22 59 0SP Clayton Turner, Northwestern State Sr. 10-3 3.50 16 100.1 87 42 103 0SP Zach Zuercher, Rhode Island Jr. 8-3 2.82 17 92.2 56 44 123 1SP Patrick Ezell, Southern Miss So. 6-2 3.57 17 90.2 101 14 73 0SP Jason Meyer, Texas A&M So. 8-2 2.89 24 106 88 41 111 3SP Michael Gardner, Texas-ArlingtonJr. 11-3 2.49 16 105 84 33 77 0SP Ryan Mullins, Vanderbilt Sr. 9-3 2.58 17 111.2 104 20 98 0RP Neil Jamison, Long Beach State Sr. 3-5 4.35 30 31 17 12 31 12RP J. Brent Cox, Texas Jr. 6-2 2.21 37 63.2 55 19 63 5RP Brian Pellegrini, St. Bonaventure So. 4-3 2.25 25 31.1 32 19 32 9

— UVa —