INDIANA, Pa. – IUP's
Ryan Uhl (St. Marys, Pa./St. Marys) has been named one of eight finalists for the D2 Baseball News Tino Martinez Award. The award is given annually to the most outstanding player in NCAA Division II baseball.
The winner of the 2015 Tino Martinez Award will be named on Monday, June 1, following the NCAA Division II Championships in Cary, N.C.
Uhl is a three-time All-American this postseason, earning first team nods by the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) and National Collegiate Baseball Writers of Association (NCBWA), and second team honors by Daktronics (sports information directors).
He's joined on the list by Seton Hill's Nick Sell, in addition to Catawba's Will Albertson, Columbus State's Brendan Collins, UNC Pembroke's Collins Cuthrell, Nova Southeastern's Justin Garcia, Mount Olive's Jason Morozowski, and Trevecca Nazarene's Hunter Newman.
As of May 18, the senior first baseman leads Division II in four categories – 29 home runs, 0.66 home runs per game, 1.68 runs batted in per game, and a 1.085 slugging percentage.
His home runs and slugging percentage totals, in addition to his 74 runs batted in and 154 total bases were all single season IUP records. He also batted .415 with 59 hits, 53 runs scored and 33 walks in 44 games.
The Tino Martinez Award is named after the former University of Tampa Spartan, United States Olympian, first round draft pick and MLB All-Star, Tino Martinez. Martinez was a three-time All-American and still holds a number of UT records including career home runs (54), career slugging percentage (.736), career on base percentage (.494), single season batting average (.452) and single season slugging percentage (.957).
While he wore a Spartan uniform Tampa advanced to their first NCAA Division II National Championships (1986 and '87) and won their first of twelve SSC Championships ('87). Martinez was elected to the College Baseball Hall of Fame in 2013. Current LSU head coach Paul Mainieri has been quoted as stating Martinez was, "the best player I've ever coached against".
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