April 29, 2008

Johnny Bench Award Home Page

WICHITA, Kan. -- Rice junior Adam Zornes has been added to the official watch list for the 2008 Coleman Company-Johnny Bench Award delivered by AT&T and Papa John's Pizza, as the top catcher in Division I baseball, the Greater Wichita Area Sports Commission announced on Tuesday (April 29).

Zornes, a 6-1, 215-pound Houston native, is now one of 47 finalists for the award presented to the nation's top collegiate catchers. The watch list will be narrowed down to ten semi-finalists on May 14. The winner will be announced at the 11th Annual Greater Wichita Sports Banquet on June 27.

Not only has Zornes started 43 of the 45 games for the fourth-ranked team in the nation, he has rarely come out of a game and caught 90 percent of the team's total innings. Offensively the slugger is batting a steady .331 and he leads the team in home runs (9). The standout from nearby St. Thomas High School is second on the team in RBI (42) and slugging percentage (.564). Zornes also does something extremely rare in college baseball, and that is he calls the pitches for the entire game. With Zornes calling the game the Owls are 34-11 this season with one of the best team ERAs in Conference USA. He was drafted by the major leagues as a redshirt sophomore last year, but returned to school where he is an economics major in Rice's accelerated curriculum.

The award is named after Hall of Famer Johnny Bench, who was twice selected the Most Valuable Player in the National League and a 14-time All-Star. He won 10 Gold Gloves in his major league career and caught 100 or more games for 13 consecutive seasons.

The Rice baseball team has a break from game-action while the University is in its final exams period beginning on Monday (April 28). The Owls next return to the diamond on May 6 for a home game against Texas State to open a five-game homestand. Start time with the Bobcats is set for 6:30 pm at Reckling Park. For more information about the Coleman Company - Johnny Bench Award delivered by AT&T and Papa John's Pizza, visit the above link. The latest official watch list for the award is listed below.

Mitch Abeita	SR	University of Nebraska
Brendan Akashian	SR	College of the Holy Cross
Derrick Alfonso	SR	University of Louisville
Billy Alvino	JR	High Point University
Ryan Babineau	JR	UCLA
Matt Behren	JR	Northern Illinois University
Joe Blackburn	SR	Penn State University
Mark Carver	SR	UNC Wilmington
Jason Castro	JR	Stanford University
Trevor Coleman	SO	University of Missouri
Jake Cox	JR	Charleston Southern University
Kurt Davidson	SR	University of Akron
Adam Deleo	SR	UNC Greensboro
Dock Doyle	JR	Coastal Carolina University
Kevin Dubler	JR	Illinois State University
Tim Federowicz	JR	University of North Carolina
Luis Flores	JR	Oklahoma State University
Logan Gelbrich	SR	University of San Diego
Josh Geric	SR	Cleveland State University
Yan Gomes	SO	University of Tennessee
Doug Hogan	SR	Clemson
Tommy Johnson	SR	Marshall University
Mark Kelly	JR	Southern Illinois
Corey Kemp	SR	East Carolina University
Jeff Lanning	JR	University of New Orleans
Ryan Lavarnway	JR	Yale University
Robert Lara	JR	University of Central Florida
Alex Maldonado	SR	Centenary College
Tommy Medica	SO	Santa Clara University
Chris McMurray	JR	UC Santa Barbara
Marc Mimeault	JR	Georgia State University
Blake Murphy	SR	Western Carolina
Sean Ochinko	SO	Louisiana State University
Joe Oliveira	JR	University of the Pacific
Petey Paramore	JR	Arizona State University
John Parham	JR	Cal State Northridge
Tim Park	SR	College of William & Mary
Josh Phegley	SO	Indiana University
Buster Posey	JR	Florida State University
Kevin Reimer	JR	Canisius College
Michael Roberts	JR	Virginia Military Institute
Shea Robin	SR	Vanderbilt University
Adrian Salinas	SR	Texas A&M Corpus Christi
Chris Taylor	SR	UNC Charlotte
Nate Toth	SR	Radford University
Tyler Weber	SR	Wichita State University
Zach Zaneski	SR	University of Rhode Island
Adam Zornes	JR	Rice University