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in all of Division II. A first-team All-Conference selection, the fresh-
man from Perry, Ga., had 11 doubles, a home run, and 42 RBIs this
season. He was fourth in the league with a .487 on-base percentage
and third in the league in total hits. Gentry was named a third-team
All-American by the D2CCA, one of only two freshmen to be named.
Six PBC Baseball Players Named
ABCA/Rawlings All-Americans
AUGUSTA, GA – Six Peach Belt Conference
baseball players were named All-Amer-
icans as the American Baseball Coaches
Association (ABCA) and Rawlings Sporting
Goods announced the 2017 teams. The six
players on the team is the most the PBC
has had since placing seven in 2014 and is
the most from a single conference on the
2017 team.
The organization also released their
All-Region teams (listed below), which
featured 15 PBC players.
Georgia College led the league with two selections as Brandon
Benson was named to the first team and Cal Gentry to the third
team. Columbus State’s Mason McClellan was placed on the second
team while North Georgia’s Michael Gouge, Armstrong State’s Ryan
Patterson and USC Aiken’s Joseph Benitez were name third-team.
Now a consensus First Team All-American, Benson takes this
honor after finishing one of the best seasons in the storied history
of Georgia College Baseball. The senior hit .395 with 22 home runs,
79 RBIs and 74 runs scored. The consensus Region Player of the Year
and Peach Belt Conference (PBC) Player of the Year, he also tallied
an .819 slugging percentage and .464 on-base percentage. The
shortstop ended his career on a 17-game hit streak and boasted 22
multi-RBI games on the season, including seven with four RBIs or
more.
Gentry made an immediate impact on Division II baseball in
just his first season as a collegiate player. Holding down third base
for the Bobcats for the entire season and the leadoff spot for the
majority of the year, Gentry led the PBC in batting average at .441,
adding a home run, 42 RBIs and 59 runs. He had hit streaks of both
17 and 13 games during the year, posting a team-high 29 multi-hit
games.
The Bobcat duo makes it 20 ABCA All-Americans in school his-
tory, the most recent being first team second baseman Dylan Cook
just a season ago. Benson is the fourth Bobcat shortstop to bring
in honors from the ABCA, joining Tanner Funk in 2011 and Mike
DeVeaux in 2006. Gentry is the first third baseman to be honored as
All-Americans through this organization in school history.
McClellan was also an Honorable Mention All-America selection
by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association. The first
baseman anchored the middle of the lineup in his first season with
the Cougars. McClellan led CSU with a .381 batting average, 14
doubles, 16 home runs and 60 RBIs. His average, home runs and
RBIs all ranked inside the PBC’s top 10. Columbus State closed out
the season at 29-21 overall and finished in fourth place in the Peach
Belt Conference.
Gouge was solid all season for North
Georgia, hitting .379 with 20 doubles, 10
home runs and 60 RBI while getting on
base at a .527 lick, fifth best in Division II.
The All-American honor is his second after
earning D2CCA laurels and added to his
long list of honors this season including
first team All-Region selections from both
the ABCA and the NCBWA as well as first
team All-Conference honors from the
Peach Belt Conference. Earlier this week,
he was named an honorable mention
All-American by the NCBWA.
Patterson was named a third-team
All-American by the organization,
becoming the first ABCA All-American for Armstrong State since
Zach Taylor in 2012. He adds this honor to his D2CCA second-team
All-American honor announced last week. The Snellville, Ga., native
led the Pirates offensively in 2017, hitting .377 with seven home
runs and 62 RBI. He ranked fifth in the league in RBI, eighth in walks
and tied both an Armstrong State and Peach Belt Conference single
season record this year with three grand slam home runs.
Benitez, a native of Crofton, Md., was also tabbed an All-Ameri-
can by the D2CCA and NCBWA. A finalist for the Brett Tomko Award,
he posted an 11-3 mark on the season with a 2.63 ERA. His 11
wins tied a school record. Benitez, the PBC Pitcher of the Year and
an ABCA, D2CCA and NCBWA first-team all-region honoree, tossed
a school-record 135 strikeouts. He was also a NCBWA third-team
All-American. Benitez established a school record with 116.1 in-
nings pitched and held opponents to a .231 batting average. He had
at least 10 strikeouts in a game five times, including a season-high
12 on Feb. 18 at Mount Olive.
Three PBC Baseball Players Named Academic
All-Americans
AUSTIN, TEXAS – Three Peach Belt Conference baseball players were
named Academic All-Americans, as selected by the College Sports
Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). Montevallo’s Mathew
Furuto and UNC Pembroke’s Nick Debo were named to the first
team with Georgia College’s Clayten Ayres on the second team. It
is the sixth year in a row the PBC has had at least three Academic
2016-17