Morgantown, WV – West Virginia sophomore JJ Wetherholt has been tabbed as the NCBWA District 2 Player of the Year, becoming the fourth Mountaineer to earn the honor, joining Jedd Gyorko (2009 & 2010), Braden Zarbnisky (2017), and Alek Manoah (2019).
The latest in a long list of accolades for Wetherholt comes a day after being named a finalist for the Dick Howser Trophy and Bobby Bragan National Collegiate Slugger Award. He has also already been named Big 12 Player of the Year and a first-team All-American by Collegiate Baseball.
The Mars, Pennsylvania native is just one of two players to hit 15 home runs and steal 35 bases this season as well as the first player since Adam Greenberg of North Carolina in 2002 to have 35 stolen bases and 40 extra-base hits.
Wetherholt has also been named as one of four finalists for the Bobby Bragan National Collegiate Slugger Award (BBNCSA) presented by SR Bats, as announced by the Bobby Bragan Youth Foundation.
The BBNCSA was open to nominations from all Division I baseball programs in the country. The BBNCSA originally had 51 players nominated for the award at the beginning of the season and added eight players, including Wetherholt, to its midseason watch list. The award is based on performance at the plate, academics, and personal integrity.
“I think the BBNCSA Selection Committee had an extremely tough job this year given the depth and performance of our best Watch List in the history of the Bobby Bragan National Collegiate Slugger Award presented by SR Bats,” said Tracy Taylor, Executive Director of the BBNCSA and the Bobby Bragan Youth Foundation. “You can’t go wrong with three upperclassmen that hit over .430 for the season and were the top three hitters in Division I plus a redshirt freshman who hit .386 with 25 homers. This year’s finalists include the Player’s of The Year from the SEC (Crews), the Big 12 (Wetherholt) and Conference USA (Schanuel) and Condon was the SEC Freshman Of the Year.”
Wetherholt put up the greatest offensive season in WVU history as he hit a nation-leading .449 with 16 home runs, 24 doubles, two triples, 60 RBI, 67 runs scored, and 36 stolen bases. He was also named the Big 12 Player of the Year, a Collegiate Baseball first-team All-American and a finalist for the Dick Howser Trophy.
Off the field, he has 3.87 GPA while majoring in finance which led to him being named a first-team Academic All-American by College Sports Communicators, just the fourth Academic All-American in Mountaineer baseball history.
Wetherholt is also one of the most vocal leaders on the Mountaineers, serving as a consummate teammate, always looking to give credit, and offering words of encouragement to others.