
BLACKSBURG - Virginia Tech's Mark Zagunis has been named to the 13th annual National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) preseason All-America second team, announced by the organization on Wednesday.
A sophomore from Cinnaminson, N.J., Zagunis was chosen as a catcher and is just one of three position players from the ACC chosen to any of the three teams. He is joined on the second team by NC State's Trea Turner (So., 3B) and Georgia Tech's Brandon Thomas (Sr., OF) was a third teamer. Five ACC pitchers made the preseason list, which can be viewed here.
Zagunis piled up the postseason accolades after his rookie campaign with the Hokies in 2012. He was named to three Freshman All-American Teams - the NCBWA Second Team, the Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American Team, and the Perfect Game Second Team, while also earning a nod on the All-ACC Second Team, becoming the first freshman at Tech named to a postseason all-conference team since 2004 (Sean O'Brien and Warren Schaeffer) when the Hokies were in the BIG EAST. Lastly, Zagunis was also one of three Hokies named to the All-ACC Academic Team, was the VaSID Rookie of the Year and was one of three Tech players on the all-state team.
His 2012 numbers included posting a team-high 18 multi-hit games, including five games with three hits and one game with four. He was fourth on the team in both multi-RBI games (8) and multi-run games (9) and led the team with a 13-game hitting streak and a 26-game reached base streak (the longest at school since 2009)
He batted .344 (first on the team) with 65 hits (second), including 13 doubles (second), two triples (tied for third) and five home runs (fourth) for 97 total bases (third) and a .513 slugging percentage (third). He scored 35 runs (fourth) and knocked in 34 (tied for third), had a .430 on-base percentage (first) and led the team with 17 stolen bases.
Zagunis becomes the third Hokie to earn a preseason nod in the last four years, following Andrew Rash's selection to a pair of teams last year and Austin Wates to two as well before the start of the 2010 season.
Tech opens its 2013 season in Wilmington, N.C. with four games against a pair of teams that won their respective conferences and qualified for the NCAA Baseball Championship in Kent State (a College World Series participant) and UNC Wilmington.
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