Cornell's Urbon Named NCBWA Freshman All-American

Story and photo courtesy of Cornell Athletic Communications

DALLAS -- The honors keep rolling in for Cornell freshman reliever Kellen Urbon. The Big Red pitcher was named to the first team of the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association's (NCBWA) Division I Freshman All-America Team on Monday. Urbon set program records this season with nine saves and a 0.47 earned run average.
 
Urbon was lights-out all season for the Big Red, immediately installed as the team's closer. He had a 3-1 record through 21 appearances, including three extended outings of five innings or more. He earned his first collegiate victory with five scoreless innings of work April 7 at Brown, then surrendered just an unearned run in 6.1 innings of relief April 29 at Princeton in a must-win game that Cornell won in the 12th inning. The performance at Princeton earned Urbon Ivy League Rookie of the Week honors.

The following week, Urbon pitched five scoreless innings in Game 3 of the Ivy League Championship Series against Dartmouth, earning the victory after Chris Cruz's walk-off home run in the 11th inning sent Cornell to the win. To close out the season, he worked 2.2 innings against East Carolina in an NCAA Regional game, surrendering just an unearned run. Opposing hitters batted just .170 against him for the season, and just two of the six runs scored against him on the season were earned.
 
Urbon led the team's staff of relievers in appearances. He was unanimously voted Ivy League Rookie of The Year and first-team All-Ivy, then was named to the 2012 Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American team last week. He is now pitching summer ball for the New England Collegiate Baseball League's Vermont Mountaineers.