Arkansas’ Andrew Benintendi named SEC player of the year

Published 6:24 pm Monday, May 18, 2015

HOOVER, Ala. (AP) — Arkansas outfielder Andrew Benintendi is the Southeastern Conference’s player of the year and Vanderbilt’s Carson Fulmer is the league’s pitcher of the year.

The SEC announced its annual awards Monday. Other award winners included LSU’s Alex Lange as freshman of the year, LSU’s Paul Mainieri as coach of the year and Mississippi State’s Seth Heck as scholar-athlete of the year.

Benintendi leads the nation in slugging percentage (.771) and tops the SEC in batting average (.415) and homers (17). Fulmer leads the SEC in wins (11), ERA (1.51) and strikeouts (132).

Joining Benintendi, Fulmer and Lange as first-team all-SEC picks were LSU’s Kade Scivicque, Conner Hale, Alex Bregman and Andrew Stevenson, South Carolina’s Kyle Martin, Kentucky’s JaVon Shelby, Tennessee’s Christin Stewart, Texas A&M’s Mitchell Nau and Arkansas’ Zach Jackson.