Published: May 21, 2008 02:09 am            

WVU’s Gyorko is voted Big East Rookie of Year

MORGANTOWN — Jedd Gyorko has become only the second West Virginia University baseball player ever named Big East Rookie of the Year.

The 5-foot-10, 180-pound freshman second baseman from Morgantown also was selected a spot on the all-Big East second team in balloting by the league’s 12 head baseball coaches.

Shortstop Tyler Kuhn, 5-foot-10, 180 senior from Louisville, Ky., made the all-Big East first team, thanks to both a WVU- and conference-best batting average of .422. He also led the Big East in hits (school-record 95) and runs scored (67)

Gyorko, a former University High star, was his team’s second-leading hitter at .411, and that ranked him third in the league. He also was second in hits (90), fifth in runs scored (57) and tied for fifth in RBIs with 57.

Outfielder Justin Parks, a junior from Columbus, Ohio, joined Gyorko on the all-conference second team. Two other Mountaineers, first baseman Joe Agreste and third baseman Vince Belnome, made the all-conference third team.

Agreste batted .381 while Parks and Belnome both hit .379 as the Mountaineers posted a 34-19 record and finished seventh in the Big East, three places higher than predicted in the preseason poll.

The awards were presented Monday night in ceremonies at Clearwater, Fla., where the Big East baseball tournament began Tuesday at Bright House Field.

Naturally, both Gyorko and Kuhn were elated to have been honored among the Big East’s best performers. They also will be remembered as one of the school’s most productive double-play combinations in history.

While Gyorko came into his first season of collegiate competition with high expectations, he credits Kuhn for much of the success he achieved. And he knows that wouldn’t have been possible had Kuhn decided to skip his senior year after being chosen by Cleveland in the 33rd round of last June’s amateur draft.

Thankfully for WVU, he decided to return rather than sign with the Indians’ organization.

“Jedd has definitely benefited from playing a year with Tyler,” coach Greg Van Zant said. “In fact, it would have been a shame for us if Tyler would have signed last year. We would not have had the season we had without him.”

Kuhn obviously has no regrets. He probably put himself in position for higher picking in the upcoming June draft by posting bigger numbers.

        

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