Max Rajcic, Cody Schrier Highlight UCLA Baseball's Pac-12 Award Winners
With the conference's top teams heading to Scottsdale for a five-day tournament, the Pac-12 has doled out its annual postseason awards.
UCLA baseball (35-15, 19-11 Pac-12) had seven players secure hardware Tuesday afternoon, the conference announced in a press release. Left-hander Ethan Flanagan, first baseman Jake Palmer, catcher Darius Perry, right-hander Max Rajcic, shortstop Cody Schrier and right-hander Alonzo Tredwell made the Pac-12 All-Conference Team, while third baseman Kyle Karros made the Pac-12 All-Defensive Team.
Stanford, which took two out of three against UCLA earlier in the season en route to a regular season conference title, nearly swept the individual Pac-12 awards. Oregon State had the Pac-12 Player of the Year in outfielder Jacob Melton Jr., though, and the Beavers had the most All-Conference Team members with eight.
The Bruins and Cardinal tied for the second most with six, but the blue and gold did not feature any of the top individual honorees.
Five of the UCLA players who made the All-Conference Team did so for the first time, with Rajcic being the lone exception. The Bruins' closer-turned-ace was top-three in the conference with eight wins and 91 strikeouts, while ranking No. 5 in the Pac-12 with a 3.08 ERA.
Palmer was the only qualified UCLA batter to hit over .300 on the season, and the veteran transfer from UC Irvine also had 32 RBIs and 36 walks to 27 strikeouts in 53 games played.
Perry, who had played in just six games across his first two seasons in Westwood, made the leap to being an everyday starter and top-five catcher in the Pac-12. The junior may have hit .150 in May, but he entered the final month of the regular season batting .339 and still ended up at .263.
The rest of the Bruins' All-Conference Team members were true freshman, with Schrier leading the way for the young guns at the plate. Schrier, missing only one game all season, led UCLA in at-bats, runs, hits, home runs, RBIs, total bases, slugging percentage and OPS while finishing second in batting average and stolen bases.
Flanagan and Tredwell both moved around and filled multiple roles on the mound, helping the Bruins to weather the injuries to Jared Karros, Thatcher Hurd, Gage Jump and others.
Tredwell's season ERA never went above 3.00 after the start of March, and he finished the regular season with a team-best 1.70 to go along with his 0.76 WHIP and 13.4 K/9. The freshman also led the way with five saves after becoming the go-to closer down the stretch.
Flanagan worked out of the bullpen at times too, but he also had to fill in as a midweek and Saturday starter at others. Striking out 12 batters per nine innings and boasting a 2.79 ERA of his own, Flanagan became a necessary jack-of-all-trades amid the avalanche of injuries.
As the lone defensive honoree on the team, Kyle Karros had just four errors working out of the hot corner – the fewest of UCLA's regular infielders.
The entirety of the Pac-12 regular season honors can be seen below:
Pac-12 Player of the Year: Jacob Melton, Jr., OF/INF, Oregon State
Pac-12 Pitcher of the Year: Alex Williams, Sr., RHP, Stanford
Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year: Adam Crampton, Jr., INF, Stanford
Pac-12 Freshman of the Year: Braden Montgomery, Fr., OF/RHP, Stanford
Pac-12 Coach of the Year: David Esquer, Stanford
Pac-12 Batting Champion: Brett Barrera, Jr., INF, Stanford
Pac-12 All-Conference Team
INF Nate Baez, Arizona State
INF Brett Barrera, Stanford
INF Travis Bazzana, Oregon State
OF Dylan Beavers, California
RHP Ryan Brown, Oregon State
RHP Ben Ferrer, Oregon State
RHP Quinn Flanagan, Arizona
LHP Ethan Flanagan, UCLA
1B Garret Forrester, Oregon State
1B Carter Graham, Stanford
LHP Cooper Hjerpe, Oregon State
C Kody Huff, Stanford
OF Brock Jones, Stanford
INF Josh Kasevich, Oregon
C Gavin Logan, Oregon State
DH/C Caleb Lomavita, California
1B Nathan Martorella, California
DH Jacob McKeon, Washington State
OF Wade Meckler, Oregon State
OF Jacob Melton, Oregon State
DH/INF Brennan Milone, Oregon
OF Tanner O'Tremba, Arizona
1B Jake Palmer, UCLA
C Darius Perry, UCLA
RHP Stefan Raeth, Washington
RHP Max Rajcic, UCLA
INF Cody Schrier, UCLA
1B Will Simpson, Washington
LHP Kolby Somers, Oregon
C Daniel Susac, Arizona
C Johnny Tincher, Washington
DH/INF Jacob Tobias, Arizona State
RHP Alonzo Tredwell, UCLA
INF Tyresse Turner, USC
RHP Alex Williams, Stanford
Honorable Mention: Justin Boyd, Oregon State; Ryan Campos, Arizona State; Davis Cop, Utah; Conor Davis, Arizona State; Chase Davis, Arizona; Landon Frei, Utah; Anthony Hall, Oregon; Garrett Irvin, Arizona; Caden Kaelber, Washington State; Jacob Kmatz, Oregon State; Joe Lampe, Arizona State; Quinn Mathews, Stanford; Sean McLain, Arizona State; Braden Montgomery, Stanford; Keshawn Ogans, California; Brock Peery, Arizona State; Jack Smith, Washington State; Rhylan Thomas, USC; Kyle Wisch, USC.
Pac-12 All-Defensive Team
INF Alex Baeza, Utah
INF Travis Bazzana, Oregon State
OF Justin Boyd, Oregon State
INF Adam Crampton, Stanford
OF Brock Jones, Stanford
INF Kyle Karros, UCLA
INF Josh Kasevich, Oregon
OF Rhylan Thomas, USC
C Johnny Tincher, Washington
RHP Alex Williams, Stanford
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