Cape Coral native Rivera named Louisville Slugger All-American

Author: Matt Moretti, FGCU
Published:

The Louisville Slugger NCAA Division I All-American baseball teams were announced on Thursday morning by Collegiate Baseball newspaper and FGCU first-baseman Nick Rivera has been selected to the third team. This is the first All-American selection of Rivera’s career. He was named a Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American following his debut campaign in 2013.

“This is a tremendous recognition for Nick,” head coach Dave Tollett said. “He had a great year for us and just continues to get better every year. He worked extremely hard for this and deserves every recognition he is going to receive.”

At the plate, Nick Rivera (Cape Coral, Fla./Bishop Verot HS) had a career-season that sat near the top of the Atlantic Sun in nearly every offensive category and ranks near the top of FGCU program history. He hit a career-best .347 with a Division I program record 70 RBI and just four shy of the FGCU single-season RBI record of 74 set by Jason Louwsma in 2006.

Rivera became the 11th player in program history to hit 10 home runs in a single season and collected 20 doubles for the second-straight year, which give him 42 for his career that rank ninth in program history, and a triple while scoring 34 runs and slugging .608. The junior also walked 40 times to produce an on-base percentage of .458.

Rivera would be named A-Sun Player of the Week on two separate occasions in addition to being chosen as an All-Conference First Team member. He would also build a career-best hitting streak of 16 games and accumulated a streak of 26 consecutive games reaching base at one point. He becomes the fourth postseason All-American choice in FGCU joining the list of three-time MLB All-Star Chris Sale and teammates Mike Murray (West Palm Beach, Fla./Forrest Hill HS) and Jake Noll (Punta Gorda, Fla./Charlotte) who each received the recognition a year ago.

The Eagles closed the 2015 season with a 30-26-1 record and were one of three teams left playing in the Atlantic Sun Championship Tournament before falling to top-seeded North Florida. Six individuals would be selected to postseason All-Conference teams

FIRST TEAM
Pitchers
RHP Taylor Clarke, Coll. of Charleston
RHP Carson Fulmer, Vanderbilt
LHP Matt Hall, Missouri St.
RHP Mike Shawaryn, Marlyand
RHP Alex Lange, LSU
LHP Matthew Crownover, Clemson
Reliever David Berg, UCLA
Reliever Tyler Jay, Illinois

Position Players
C Chris Robinson, Morehead St.
1B Will Craig, Wake Forest
2B Melvin Rodriguez, Jackson St.
3B David Thompson, Miami
SS Alex Bregman, LSU
OF Andrew Benintendi, Arkansas
OF Donnie Dewees, North Florida
OF Kevin Kaczmarski, Evansville
UT Corbin Olmstead, North Florida

SECOND TEAM
Pitchers
RHP Thomas Eshelman, Cal. St. Fullerton
RHP Kevin Hill, South Alabama
LHP Alex Young, TCU
RHP Preston Morrison, TCU
RHP Kevin Duchene, Illinois
RHP Andrew Moore, Oregon St.
RHP Jon Harris, Missouri St.
RHP James Kaprielian, UCLA
RHP Dillon Tate, U.C. Santa Barbara
RHP Zach Rodgers, Central Florida
RHP Ryan McCormick, St. John’s
LHP Luke Gillingham, Navy
RHP James McMahon, Southern Mississippi
LHP Michael Freeman, Oklahoma St.
Reliever Riley Ferrell, TCU
Reliever Brandon Koch, Dallas Baptist

Position Players
C Chris Okey, Clemson
C Kade Scivicque, LSU
1B Conor Clancey, Wofford
1B David Kerian, Illinois
1B Kyle Martin, South Carolina
2B Jesse Baker, Texas-San Antonio
3B Matt Beaty, Belmont
SS Dansby Swanson, Vanderbilt
OF Kyle Lewis, Mercer
OF Ian Happ, Cincinnati
OF Michael Morman, Richmond
UT Anthony Sequeira, Oral Roberts

THIRD TEAM
Pitchers
RHP Justin Sinibaldi, Nicholls St.
RHP David Hill, San Diego
RHP Kyle Funkhouser, Louisville
LHP Jared Lyons, Liberty
LHP James Reeves, The Citadel
RHP Grayson Long, Texas A&M
RHP Carson Cross, Connecticut
RHP Blake Hickman, Iowa
LHP Jacob Hendren, Illinois St.
Reliever Zack Burdi, Louisville
Reliever Bryan Young, Missouri St.
Reliever Logan Cozart, Ohio
Reliever Tyler Peitzmeier, Cal. St. Fullerton

Position Players
C Nick Dini, Wagner
C Matt Thaiss, Virginia
C Matt Winn, VMI
1B Chris Chinea, LSU
1B Tucker Tubbs, Memphis
1B Austin Byler, Nevada
1B Nick Rivera, FGCU
2B Scott Kingery, Arizona
2B Ryan Howell, Nevada
2B Stefan Trosclair, Louisiana-Lafayette
2B Nate Mondou, Wake Forest
3B Zach George, Arkansas St.
3B Carl Wise, Coll. of Charleston
3B Ricky Santiago, FAU
3B Jake Burger, Missouri St.
SS Kevin Kramer, UCLA
SS Kevin Newman, Arizona
SS Blake Trahan, Louisiana-Lafayette
OF Jeff Boehm, Illinois-Chicago
OF Brett Siddall, Canisius
OF Sam Koenig, Wisc.-Milwaukee
OF Brendon Sanger, FAU
UT Cole Hallum, Campbell

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