Rice, Ridings Named ABCA All-America

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — After already being named to the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) all-region first team, Matt Rice and Matt Ridings have now been honored as third-team ABCA All-Americans.

The ABCA All-America teams are collegiate baseball's oldest selections, dating to 1949. All Division I coaches have the opportunity to nominate and vote on these selections, which are initially compiled into eight All-Region teams. These teams are then finalized as the first, second and third All-America teams by the ABCA's NCAA Division I All-America and Coach of the Year Committee, chaired by Dean Ehehalt of Monmouth University (N.J.). This year, the committee selected 64 players as 2010 ABCA All-Americans.

Rice, an ABCA All-South Central Region selection in 2009, was named to the All-Sun Belt Conference First Team after leading the Hilltoppers with a .369 batting average, 10 home runs and 65 RBI in 2010. He improved his defensive play from a season ago, making just two errors in 2010 and throwing out nearly 30 percent of potential base-stealers. He was a semi-finalist for the Johnny Bench Award, given annually to college baseball's best catcher.

Ridings turned in a remarkable senior season in 2010 before an injury ended his year prior to the Sun Belt Conference Tournament. The right-hander was 9-1 with a career-best 3.01 ERA in 2010, and opposing hitters managed just a .218 batting average against him, also the lowest of his career. He struck out 90 in 92.2 innings pitched, and for his efforts was named to the All-Sun Belt Conference First Team and was voted the Sun Belt Conference Pitcher of the Year.

He concluded perhaps the finest pitching career in Hilltopper baseball history with a 34-9 career record and 354 strikeouts in 383.2 innings pitched. The 34 wins and 354 strikeouts are the most ever by any WKU pitcher and are tied for first and rank third  all-time in Sun Belt Conference history, respectively.

Both players were selected in the recently-concluded Major League Baseball First-Year Players Draft, with Ridings going in the 41st round to the Kansas City Royals and Rice being chosen by the New York Yankees in the 50th round.

Prior to this year, WKU had never had multiple ABCA All-Americans in the same season. Rice and Ridings join Ralph Antone (1983), Rob Tomberlin (1985), Bill Weyers (1993), Ryan Bicondoa (2002), Matt Gunning (2004) and Wade Gaynor (2009) as previous Hilltopper ABCA All-America honorees.

Related Videos