by Nate Loop
The Foresters gleaming trophy cabinet is running out of shelf space (metaphorically speaking, but it’s an idea worth looking into) as the players from the 2012 edition of the organization continue to rack up well-deserved honors.
The Foresters dominated the list for the CCL All-League Team Honors, as nine players in all made the list.
The Foresters saw five players- Jacob Felts, Hunter Lemke, Ian McCarthy, Brandon Pierce, and Richard Sanguinetti- named to the All-League First Team, more than any other team in the CCL.
Austin Davidson, TJ McGreevey, and Nick Palewicz were on the list for the Second Team, and Arby Fields was the lone Forester named to the Third Team.
The Foresters dominated the 2012 Gold Glove team, as five players made this list as well. The ‘Sters saw both of their catchers, Felts and Tyler Pearson, make the list. The potent double play combo of Davidson (2B) and Richy Pedroza (SS) were honored as well. Ryan O’Hearn also made the team for his outfield play.
Jason Hursh, a righthanded pitcher out of Oklahoma State, was named the 2012 Top Pitching Prospect by the California Collegiate League, one of the four major individual honors awarded each year by the CCL. Hursh missed the majority of the season recovering from Tommy John surgery, but managed to impress in his seven games of work out of the bullpen. Hursh’s stat line for the season was 1-0, 11.2 IP, 15 Ks, 0.77 ERA.
Dylan Munger of the San Luis Obispo Blues was named the 2012 Most Valuable Pitcher, but had to beat out a trio of Foresters pitchers-Hunter Lemke, Ian McCarthy, and Nick Palewicz- for the award. All of these pitchers are deserving of the honor, and it is emblematic of the Foresters season that so many pitchers were clustered near the top of the voting.
Richard Sanguinetti (OF, Nebraska) was named as a top vote-getter for the 2012 Most Valuable Player award, but the fact that he missed out on a substantial portion of the season due to injury may have prevented him from winning the award, which ended up to Michael Martin of Team Vegas.
According to the CCL press release, the voting was done online for the first time ever, allowing the players of the CCL the opportunity to cast their ballots and nominate fellow players for the awards.
