Mizzou baseball players Keaton Steele (St. Joseph, Mo.) and Josh Lester (Columbus, Ga.) were named to All-Southeastern Conference Teams. Steele was named to the All-SEC First Team as a utility player and Lester earned the first base position on the All-Freshman Team. Steele led Mizzou with five wins on the mound, two saves and hit .276 with 24 RBIs and a team-high five homers. He was the only player in the SEC to lead his team in wins, saves and home runs this season. In SEC play, Steele led Mizzou in batting (.306), slugging (.542), homers (five) and on-base percentage (.435). He also had an ERA of 3.00 in league games and struck out 45 batters in 48.0 innings in SEC play.
Lester hit .260, driving in 25 runs, and he led the team with nine doubles and tied for the team-lead in extra-base hits with 11 as he also tallied a pair of homers. Lester played all four infield positions for Mizzou and was the most reliable infielder defensively, committing only four errors in 281 chances, good for a .986 fielding percentage, a team-best among Tiger infielders.
Vanderbilt’s Tony Kemp was selected 2013 SEC Baseball Player of the Year, Aaron Nola of LSU was named SEC Pitcher of the Year and LSU shortstop Alex Bregman was named SEC Freshman of the Year by a vote of the league’s 14 head baseball coaches. The coaches also tabbed Vanderbilt head coach Tim Corbin SEC Coach of the Year. Sam Frost of Mississippi State was named SEC Baseball Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
Vanderbilt’s 26 SEC wins set the conference record, breaking South Carolina’s record of 25 set in 2000. Vandy won 18 straight series dating back to last season, including all 14 this year. The Commodores wrapped up the regular season a school record 48-7 and were the No. 1 seed in the SEC Tournament last week in Hoover, Ala.
SEC PLAYER OF THE YEAR – Tony Kemp, Vanderbilt
SEC PITCHER OF THE YEAR – Aaron Nola, LSU
SEC FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR – Alex Bregman, LSU
SEC SCHOLAR-ATHLETE OF THE YEAR – Sam Frost, Mississippi State
SEC COACH OF THE YEAR – Tim Corbin, Vanderbilt
