Teel Claims Nation’s Top Catching Honor

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Virginia catcher Kyle Teel was the recipient of the Buster Posey National Collegiate Catcher of the Year Award at banquet hosted by the Wichita Sports Commission on Thursday (June 29). He is the fifth ACC catcher in the last seven presentations of the award to win it.

The honor caps a banner season for the Virginia backstop. Teel was also named the ACC Player of the Year and was a consensus first team All-American. The Buster Posey Award places an emphasis on the durability displayed by its candidates and no other catcher in the country was behind the plate as consistently as Teel. The Mahwah, N.J. native started all 65 games this season and missed just 23 innings. Teel also helped manage a Cavalier pitching staff that sported the fourth-lowest ERA in college baseball.

Accompanying his defensive prowess was an eye-popping year at the plate. Teel batted .407 (107-for-258), the sixth-highest average of any Cavalier in a season ever. Only two Cavaliers since 1985 have eclipsed the .400 mark in a single-season. Teel accumulated 25 doubles, blasted a career-high 13 homers and drove in 65 runs. His 105 hits were the fourth-most in the country and second behind teammate Griff O’Ferrall for the ACC lead.

In three seasons, Teel boasted a .343 career average, the 10th-highest in program history. His 28 career home runs are the seventh most of any Cavalier. He ranks eighth all-time in career runs scored (170), ninth in doubles (48) and ninth in total bases (376).

NOTABLES

• Earlier in the day Teel was named a First Team All-American by D1Baseball, the lone Cavalier to be included. He has landed on the first team from the ABCA, Baseball America, Collegiate Baseball Newspaper, D1Baseball, NCBWA and Perfect Game.
• Teel is the first Cavalier ever to garner First Team All-America honors from six different publications and the fifth consensus First Team All-American in UVA history. *Consensus All-American is defined as a player earning All-America honors from ABCA, Baseball America & Collegiate Baseball Newspaper.
• Teel joins Nathan Kirby (2014), Danny Hultzen (2011), Jacob Thompson (2007) and Seth Greisinger (1996) as UVA consensus All-Americans.
• MLB Hall of Famer Johnny Bench announced via twitter that Teel was the 2023 Johnny Bench Awards’ Collegiate Catcher of the Year Award winner. The award includes a top college softball winner, as well as regional, “Reds Country”, high school baseball and softball honorees from Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and West Virginia. All winners are recognized in the Reds Hall of Fame & Museum at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati, Ohio and will all jointly be recognized on July 18 in Cincinnati.