HOUSTON -- University of Texas pitchers Adrian Alaniz, Kyle McCulloch and Kenn Kasparek were among 40 hurlers nationally to be included on the initial "Watch List" for the 2006 Clemens Award, which honors the top pitcher in college baseball annually, on Friday, Jan. 20.
The list is comprised of all Division I pitchers who were named 2006 Preseason All-Americans by either Baseball America, Collegiate Baseball or the National College Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA). Additional pitchers will be added each week when honored as National Pitchers of the Week by the NCBWA and after the NCAA releases its statistical rankings during the college baseball season.
Texas is one of three schools to place three pitchers on the initial "Watch List" as both Oregon State and Nebraska also had three hurlers named. Notably, the Pac 10 leads all conferences represented on the list with eight pitchers, followed by the Big 12 (Texas, Nebraska and Missouri) and the ACC with seven each.
While helping lead the Longhorns to their sixth National Championship one year ago, McCulloch (Houston, Texas) was named a first-team All-Big 12 hurler as well as a 2005 Summer All-American and both Alaniz (Sinton, Texas) and Kasparek (Weimar, Texas) were tabbed Freshman All-Americans. As a trio, they combined for a 28-7 mark on the mound in 2005 while fanning 239 over 319.2 innings of work. Additionally, each of them held ERAs of 2.92 or better last season.
The Clemens Award was named after future Hall of Famer Roger Clemens, who began his march to stardom while leading The University of Texas to the College World Series title in 1983. As a professional, Clemens has won 341 games (ninth best in history), fanned 4,502 hitters and won seven Cy Young Awards < emblematic as the top pitcher in his league. The Clemens Award is the only award of its kind, honoring the finest pitchers in college baseball.
The third annual Clemens Award will be presented to the nation's top college pitcher at the conclusion of a gala event in Houston in July. All Division I head baseball coaches will take part in the voting for the honor, in addition to a selected panel of national media and all past winners of the Rotary Smith Award, which was retired after the 2003 dinner by the committee that is now sponsoring the Clemens Award.
The gala event is administered by the Greater Houston Baseball Association (GHBA), which has donated $200,000 to designated beneficiaries (The Roger Clemens Foundation, The Karl Young Summer College Baseball League and Baseball USA) from the net proceeds of the first two dinners. The GHBA is a non-profit 501.3 (C) organization dedicated to the growth of amateur baseball in the Houston area.
Tickets for the 2006 event are now on sale. For more information, please call the Greater Houston Baseball Association at (713) 739-0505, write to The Clemens Award (2550 S. Sam Houston Parkway West, Houston, TX 77047).
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