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Lavarnway Named Third Team All-American
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Courtesy: Yale Sports PublicityNEW HAVEN, Conn. --- Baseball America has released its annual College All-America Team, and Yale sophomore Ryan Lavarnway has been named to the third team as an outfielder. He is the only Ivy Leaguer on the squad and Yale's first All-American since Dan Thompson was a third-team selection in 1996.
Lavarnway led the NCAA in batting average (.467) and slugging percentage (.873), making him just the Bulldogs' second national statistical champion, and the first since Bill Polinsky averaged 1.14 stolen bases per game in 1961. He also ranks in the top 50 nationally in RBIs per game (10th, 1.28) and doubles per game (32nd, 0.4).
The Woodland Hills, Calif., native set school records in batting, slugging, home runs (14), hits (70), RBIs (55), doubles (17) and total bases (131). Lavarnway had a school-record 23-game hitting streak to start the season, and his 25-game streak dating back to 2006 set a new Ivy standard.
"It's obviously exciting," Lavarnway said. "Glenn (Lungarini, the Yale hitting coach) told me that I'd be an All-American before I graduated. I'm happy I didn't disappoint him."
A unanimous First Team All-Ivy selection, Lavarnway made League history by earning three consecutive Player of the Week honors this season (March 19, March 26, April 2). He was one of 10 semifinalists for the College Baseball Foundation's Brooks Wallace National Player of the Year Award.
Vanderbilt pitcher David Price, the No. 1 overall pick by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in the Major League Baseball Draft earlier this month, was named Baseball America's Player of the Year. For a complete list of the Baseball America All-America teams, please click here.
Lavarnway is spending the summer playing for the Manchester Silkworms of the New England Collegiate Baseball League.
- A.S.
