University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Jared Bales Earns Louisville Slugger Freshman All-America Honors
6/8/2011 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
June 8, 2011
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Southern Miss catcher Jared Bales garnered Louisville Slugger Freshmen All-America honors as selected by the Collegiate Baseball newspaper on Wednesday.
Bales, a redshirt freshman from Picayune, Miss., who also earned All-Conference USA Freshmen honors, batted .281 this season with nine doubles, two home runs and 20 runs batted in over 41 games, including 34 starting assignments.
He collected nine multiple-hit games during the campaign, including a season-high four against UCF on April 2, in which he also drove in a season-best four runs. At one point during the year, he added a nine-game hitting streak.
Defensively, Bales threw out 12 of 21 potential base stealers and posted a .984 fielding percentage, making just four errors behind the plate. He did not commit an error over his final 11 games which spanned 50 fielding chances.
Bales became the 14th Golden Eagle to earn Louisville Slugger/Collegiate Baseball Freshmen All-America honors and the first since Kameron Brunty was honored by the publication in 2009.
