Baseball America Names Cook and King All-Americans
6/19/2003 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Baseball America Names Cook and King All-Americans
Hattiesburg, Miss. - Southern Miss outfielders Jeff Cook and Clint King have been named Third-Team All-Americans by Baseball America, today.
The duo, nicknamed the Southern Miss "Bash Boys", has collected first-team All-Conference USA honors, All-Conference USA Tournament honors (King was named MVP), All-NCAA Regional Tournament Honors, ABCA All-South Region First-Team and All-American honors from the American Baseball Coaches Association (King - first team, Cook - third team), Collegiate Baseball (both third team), USA Today/Baseball Weekly (both first team) and the National Baseball Writers Association (King - first team, Cook - second team).
King joined Cook to form USM?s version of the ?Bash Boys.? King and Cook were the top two home run producers in Conference USA, with both players matching the school record with 23 homers this season. King closed out his 2003 campaign ranked in the school?s single-season Top 10 in batting average (6th at .394), slugging percentage (3rd at .772), doubles (tied for 5th at 23) and RBI (4th with 77). Cook batted .374 for the season with 76 RBI and a .728 slugging percentage (both fifth on USM?s single-season charts).
Tulane's Michael Aubrey and Houston's Ryan Wagner were both first-team selections to round out the other selections from Conference USA.
King, a Verizon Third-Team Academic All-American and third-round selection of the Chicago White Sox, and Cook, the Conference USA Baseball Scholar Athlete of the Year and fifth-round draft choice of the Arizona Diamondbacks, were the top two home run producers in Conference USA, with King smashing 23 homers, and Cook bashing 23 round-trippers after NCAA regional play. King drove 77 runs this season to rank fourth on USM?s single-season list, while Cook was one spot behind him with 76. King?s .394 batting average was second in C-USA, while Cook ranked fourth with a .374 average.
King led the team in hits (100), total bases (196) and slugging percentage (.772). He had 35 multiple-hit games (24 with two hits, 10 with three hits, one with four hits) and 19 multiple-RBI games. Nationally, King currently ranks No. 8 in home runs, No. 30 in RBI and No. 43 in batting average. He took home Conference USA Tournament MVP honors after going 6-for-15 with two doubles, two home runs and five RBI to lead the Golden Eagles to the tournament title.
Cook led the team in stolen bases (16) and runs scored (71), while posting a team-leading on-base percentage of .450 and a slugging percentage of .728. During the course of this season, he became Southern Miss? all-time leader in hits (292), runs scored (200), home runs (50) and total bases (505), and finished second in career RBIs (201).
Southern Miss finished 47-16 overall and 23-7 in Conference USA, setting the school record for most wins in a season and the record for most conference wins in a season. The Golden Eagles won the Conference USA regular-season title, the tournament championship and hosted the NCAA Hattiesburg Regional Tournament on May 29-June , finishing second. They also set the school record for the highest ranking (12) by Baseball America. The Golden Eagles led the conference in hitting (.318), RBIs (455), runs (497), hits (712), walks (255), sacrifice flies (34), on-base percentage (.396), slugging percentage (.516), doubles (142), home runs (89), total bases (455), saves (19) and ERA (3.56).