All-Americans, widely regarded as the highest individual honor a
student-athlete can receive.
Furuto becomes only the fourth Montevallo baseball stu-
dent-athlete to receive this honor in the program’s history and the
second since Montevallo became a NCAA institution. A Birming-
ham, Ala. native, he owns a 4.00 GPA while pursuing a graduate de-
gree in secondary education and boasted a 3.97 GPA while pursuing
a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics.
Furuto led the team in batting average and had a .360 average
on the season. He also played in 44 of the Falcons’ 48 games this
year. Furuto also led the team and
is ranked fourth nationally in RBIs
with 66 on the year.
Debo becomes just the fourth
player in UNC Pembroke baseball
history to achieve the honor,
joining former standouts Josh Haley
(2012), Eitan “E.T.” Maoz (2012)
and Zade Denton (2015) on that
short list, both of whom earned
the laurel in 2012. He is the first
player in program history to earn
both all-American and academic
all-American accolades.
While maintaining a perf ect 4.0
grade point average as a political
science major, Debo played in 56
games (52 starts) for the Braves
this season and was lauded all-PBC
honors after hitting .372 (68-for-
183) with 23 extra-base hits (10 HR), 47 RBI and 60 runs scored.
An all-region selection by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers
Association (NCBWA) as well, Debo committed just one error in 129
total defensive chances (.992), while also swiping 23 bases on 29
attempts.
A two-year starter at UNCP, Debo played in 105 games (101
starts) over his collegiate career in Pembroke and boasted a .358
(137-for-383) career batting average with 44 extra-base hits (22
HR), 87 RBI and 109 runs scored. He hit .311 (73-for-235) with 20
extra-base hits (3 HR), 48 RBI and 46 runs scored in his first two
seasons at Brunswick Community College.
The second Academic All-American in GC Baseball history, Ayres
pulls in this honor based on a 3.94 GPA as an accounting major.
He hit .320 with two home runs, 39 RBIs and 41 runs scored this
season. Ayres started all 49 ballgames at first base, committing just
two errors on the year in an amazing 424 chances. His 3.94 GPA is
the second highest on the second team, behind only the 3.97 for
Michael Lydon-Lorson of Rockhurst University.
Ayres joins Will Collins from 1995 as the only GC Baseball
2016-17
student-athletes in school history to earn Academic All-America
trophies.
Four PBC Baseball Players Taken in Major League
Draft
NEW YORK, NY – Four Peach Belt Conference baseball players
received the call of a lifetime as they were drafted by Major League
Baseball teams in 2017 draft which concluded on Wednesday. USC
Aiken’s Connor Riley and Joseph
Benitez were selected along with
Georgia College’s Brandon Benson
and North Georgia’s Connor Hoover.
Riley was selected in the
eighth round by the Los Angeles
Angels. He was the 235th pick of
the draft.
Riley, a native of Aurora, Ill.,
became the highest USCA player
taken in the MLB Draft since Rich
Batchelor in 1988 and the highest
PBC player taken since Lander’s Ma-
son McCullough in the fifth round in
2014.
“It hasn’t really set in yet,”
Riley said. “I really don’t know how
to react. I was hearing from four or
five different teams all day and out
of the blue the Angels called.
Riley registered 130 strikeouts on the season, which was third in
Division II. It also marked the third-most strikeouts in USC Aiken’s
Division II history. He posted a 3.58 ERA in 83 innings. Riley limited
opponents to a .190 batting average and gave up just 16 extra base
hits.
On six occasions, Riley struck out at least 10 batters, including a
season-best 13 against Lander and Francis Marion.
Benitez was taken in the 22nd round with the 657th pick by the
Chicago White Sox. A native of Crofton, Md., he was a third-team
All-America selection by the ABCA, D2CCA and NCBWA.
A finalist for the Brett Tomko Award, Benitez 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. Benitez established a school record with 116.1 innings
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.
Benitez recorded double-digit strikeout games against the
Trojans, Armstrong State, Lander, Francis Marion and Catawba. He
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