Florida’s Mike Zunino earns third All-American Award

Sophomore catcher Mike Zunino was named a first-team All-American by Baseball America on Thursday after previously being chosen to the second team produced by Louisville Slugger and to the third team released by the National Baseball Collegiate Writers Association (NCBWA).

Sophomore catcher Mike Zunino was named a first-team All-American by Baseball America on Thursday after previously being chosen to the second team produced by Louisville Slugger and to the third team released by the National Baseball Collegiate Writers Association (NCBWA).

The 2011 Southeastern Conference Player of the Year, Zunino is a member of the 2011 USA Baseball Collegiate National Team and is one of three finalists for the Johnny Bench Award. The first-team All-SEC selection leads the top-ranked Gators and is among the league leaders in batting average (.376), total bases (168), hits (92), runs (72), doubles (22), homers (18), slugging percentage (.686) and on-base percentage (.444). He has registered a .996 fielding percentage, with two errors in 524 chances, and has thrown out almost a third of the runners who have attempted to steal on him.

In UF’s six NCAA Tourney games, Zunino is hitting .458 (11-for-24) with nine runs, seven RBI, three homers and three doubles. Last weekend versus Mississippi State in the Super Regional, he was 6-for-13 (.462) and belted a pair of round-trippers.

Zunino batted .422 in conference games, second behind LSU’s Mikie Mahtook (.425), and had 36 runs, 33 RBI, 14 doubles and eight homers in the 30 league outings. He became the first Florida catcher to earn first-team All-SEC since Mario Linares in 1991 and was a two-time SEC Player of the Week recipient.

After capturing both the Regional and Super Regional rounds of the NCAA Tournament held at McKethan Stadium, Florida (50-17) opens the 2011 NCAA College World Series on Saturday at 7 p.m. by facing Texas (49-17) on ESPN.