Dec. 5, 2008

2009 Brooks Wallace Player of the Year Watch List

ARLINGTON, Texas - UT Arlington sophomore outfielder Michael Choice has been selected to the 2009 Preseason Brooks Wallace Player of the Year Watch List. The Wallace Award is presented annually to the nation's top collegiate baseball player.

Choice, the 2008 Southland Conference Freshman of the Year, was a five-time Freshman All-American after leading the Mavericks with a .376 batting average, seven home runs and 51 RBI in his first collegiate season.

Choice's .376 batting average ranked third in the Southland Conference and broke the UT Arlington freshman batting average record.

Three Southland Conference players were named to the Preseason Wallace Watch List, as senior Stephen Flora (Texas A&M-Corpus Christi) and junior Paul Goldschmidt (Texas State) joined Choice.

Choice ranked second on the team with 24 multi-hit games, and he tallied a .340 batting average in conference play. He batted .462 (12-for-26) in six games against Big 12 opponents, recording five runs, three doubles, two home runs and eight RBI.

He became just the second Maverick to earn Freshman All-American honors while being named to the following Freshman All-American teams: Rivals.com, National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (First Team), Baseball America (Second Team), Collegiate Baseball/Louisville Slugger and PING! (Second Team).

MAVERICK NOTES:
The last UT Arlington player to be named to the Wallace Award Watch List was Michael Gardner in 2005... The Mavericks have had three other players who have been nominees for national awards, including Clay Gould (Golden Spikes Award, 1993), Ryan Roberts (Golden Spikes Award, 2003) and Hunter Pence (NCBWA/Dick Howser Award).