University of Houston Athletics
Lincoln Named Finalist for Brooks Wallace Award
6/14/2006 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
June 14, 2006
HOUSTON - University of Houston junior righthander/DH Brad Lincoln was named one of three finalists for the 2006 Brook Wallace College Player of the Year on Tuesday.
Lincoln joins Cal State Fullerton pitcher Wes Roemer and Virginia pitcher/infielder San Doolittle in the group of finalists. The annual award banquet will be held on at 6:30 p.m., July 3 the United Spirit Arena, on the campus of Texas Tech University. Information regarding the sale of individual tickets, as well as group and corporate tables to the VIP event, is available by calling (806) 723-8232 or via the CBF website at collegebaseballfoundation.org.
Roemer, Lincoln, and Doolittle, along with their parents and head coaches, Rayner Noble of Houston, George Horton of Cal State Fullerton and Brian O,Connor of Virginia, will travel to Lubbock for a two-day celebration of college baseball on July 3-4, which will feature the theme The Past Meets Present.
Lincoln became the first player in both school and Conference USA history to be taken among the Top 10 picks of Major League Baseball's amateur draft June 6 when he was selected at No. 4 by the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Lincoln, who was named to the Collegiate Baseball Louisville Slugger All-America First Team as a utility player, emerged as one of the nation's finest all-around players in 2006. He compiled a sparkling 12-2 record with a 1.69 ERA and 152 strikeouts in 127.2 innings of work. Those numbers were even better in C-USA games only where he assembled a 7-0 record with a 1.28 ERA.
Lincoln's strikeout total ranked as the third-best mark in UH single-season history and moved him into third in UH career history with 293 punchouts.
He was named a C-USA Pitcher of the Week four times during the regular season and was honored as the Pro-Line Cap National Pitcher of the Week after tossing a five-hit shutout with nine strikeouts in the series opener at No. 1 Rice on May 12.
However, Lincoln was one of the Cougars' leading hitters all season. In 2006, he compiled a .295 batting average with 14 home runs and a team-leading 53 RBIs. He blasted a three-run walk-off homer in the bottom of the 10th inning to lead the Cougars to an 11-10 win over Texas-San Antonio in the season on opener on Feb. 7.
With his pitching and offensive numbers, Lincoln ranked among the Top 10 C-USA individual leaders in five of the six Triple Crown categories for the majority of the 2006 season.
He was honored as the C-USA Pitcher of the Year while also being named to the league's First Team but was recognized at DH on the C-USA All-Tournament Team for his performance at the plate.
Lincoln blasted a home run and earned a pitching win in games at UC Irvine and against C-USA rival Tulane earlier this season. With that, he joined current San Diego Padre pitcher Woody Williams as the only players to hit a home run and collect a win from the mound in the same game twice during their careers.
The Brooks Wallace Award is presented annually to the nation's top collegiate baseball player and will be nationally televised on Fox Sports Network, and its award-winning family of regional affiliate networks, as well as Fox College Sports. The trophy and Wallace Award winner will become part of the permanent display in the College Baseball Hall of Fame under construction in Lubbock.
On Tuesday, July 4th, the Wallace finalists will serve as Grand Marshalls in the annual 4th on Broadway Parade, and along with the 2006 Hall of Fame Inductees, will be accessible to attendees during a Hall of Fame Fan Fest, following the parade.
The Brooks Wallace Award is dedicated to the memory of the former Texas Tech player and assistant coach, who was a slick-fielding shortstop at Texas Tech from 1977 to 1980. A four-year starter, he was named All-Southwest Conference and All-District Six his senior year, when he led the Red Raiders to their first-ever appearance in the Southwest Conference Tournament. After playing two years in the Texas Rangers organization, he returned to Texas Tech and served as a graduate assistant, and later as an assistant coach. In the summer of 1984 he was diagnosed with cancer and fought the disease courageously until his death on March 24, 1985, at age 27. The Plano, Texas, native was married to the former Sandy Arnold and they had one daughter, Lindsay Ryan.
The final CBF National Selection Committee balloting to pick the 2006 Wallace Award winner will conclude at Midnight, June 29. The group is comprised of a select national panel of coaches, sports information directors, former winners and beat media (print, radio and television) who most closely follow the sport on a daily basis.
The Wallace Award is the only major collegiate honor of its, type that tracks the nominees through the entire season, from first pitch through the completion of the NCAA College World Series. Voting for the Wallace Award winner will be conducted by confidential balloting, with totals tabulated by the J.W.Anderson & Associates accounting firm in Lubbock, TX.
Kurt Suzuki of Cal State Fullerton won the 2004 Brooks Wallace Award and was followed by Alex Gordon of Nebraska in 2005. The awards, lineage includes former Player of the Year winners Andy Benes, Ben McDonald, Mike Kelly, Bobby Jones, Mike Smith, Darren Dreifort, Jason Varitek, Mark Kotsay, Kris Benson, Lance Berkman, Brad Wilkerson and Jason Jennings.
The one-hour Wallace Award presentation will debut on Fox Sports Southwest, on Saturday, July 8th at 3 p.m. (CDT), and will be carried nationally by FSN affiliates such as Sun Network, Fox Sports Southeast, FSN Arizona, FSN Northwest and FSN West, among others. The Fox College Sports networks (Atlantic, Central and Pacific) will debut the program on July 9th via FCS-Atlantic, 4 pm EDT; FCS-Central, 10 am and 11:00pm CDT, as well as FCS-Pacific, 3 pm PDT.
Please check your local listings, as the complete list of additional clearances will be updated regularly.
