Baseball player Nick McManus named to All-West Region Team
Senior infielder Nick McManus was named to the NCBWA All-West Region Second Team on Tuesday. (Photo: Kevin Hill)
- May 17, 2011
On the heels of his 2011 All-CCAA Second Team recognition Cal State East Bay senior baseball player Nick McManus was named to the National Collegiate Baseball Writer's Association (NCBWA) All-West Region Second Team on Tuesday. The honors come after McManus led the team offensively for the second straight season and earned back-to-back all-conference nods in 2010 and 2011.
The senior capped his two-year Cal State East Bay career as the Pioneers' top hitter with a .333 batting average that ranked 14th in the CCAA. McManus also led the team in nearly every other offensive category including three in which he finished among the top 11 in the conference – slugging percentage (.492), total bases (90) and hits (61).
During the season, McManus put together a team-best 12-game hitting streak that included hits in wins over Central Washington and eventual CCAA champion UC San Diego. In the Pioneers' upset of the then-top-ranked Tritons, McManus extended his hit streak to 10 games and drove in a run in the 8-4 victory.
The Temecula native also led East Bay with 17 multi-hit games, including five in victories for the Pioneers. In games that Cal State East Bay won, McManus went .328 at the plate with 11 RBI and 13 runs, and finished the campaign with an 8-for-14 performance with three RBI and four runs in a three-game sweep of Grand Canyon.
McManus was a staple on the hot corner and at designated hitter for the Pioneers as one of just two players to start every game this season. In 50 games, McManus finished with 53 putouts, 87 assists and just 12 errors in 152 defensive chances for the Pioneers.
A junior transfer from Saddleback College, McManus finished his East Bay career among the best in program history in hits and RBI. As a junior in 2010, McManus set a new single-season record for hits with 82 and caps his career ranked ninth all-time in that category with 143. McManus also drove in 89 runs during his two years as a Pioneer, ranking sixth all-time in career RBI.
The honor for McManus marks the fourth all-region recognition for East Bay student-athletes since returning to Division II competition during the 2009-10 season. Earlier this year men's soccer player Bryce Bookhamer was named to the NSCAA All-West Region Third Team, while volleyball players Kitona Offord and Brianna Bryant collected COBRA Magazine All-Region honors.
McManus joins 23 other CCAA players on the NCBWA All-Region Team, including 12 players from the conference's three NCAA Tournament participants – UC San Diego, Cal Poly Pomona and Sonoma State. Among the CCAA's honorees were Player of the Year Travis Taijeron from the Broncos and Pitcher of the Year Tim Shibuya from the Tritons. UCSD and Cal Poly Pomona Head Coaches Dan O'Brien and Randy Betten shared the West Region Coach of the Year honors. The conference placed 12 on the 13-player All-West Region First Team.
Cal State East Bay finished the season 10th in the CCAA standings and 18-32 overall. The Pioneers will lose eight seniors to graduation but return three of their top five hitters from 2011 and an All-CCAA Honorable Mention selection in starting pitcher Brandyn Bell for the 2012 campaign.