June 19, 2004
Notre Dame sophomore closer Ryan Doherty (Toms River, N.J.) has picked up his first All-America honor of the 2004 season – as a third-team selection from the National Collegiate Baseball Writers of America (NCBWA) – while former Irish third baseman Matt Macri (Clive, Iowa) collected All-America honors for the third and fourth time in ’04, as a second-team Baseball America selection and a third-team pick from the NCBWA. Doherty also is eligible for All-America honors from the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) as an ABCA first-team all-Midest Region selection while Macri joined senior second baseman Steve Sollmann and junior righthander Grant Johnson on the ABCA second team all-Mideast Region team – giving Notre Dame an unprecedented four ABCA all-region selections.
Macri is one of 14 players – and just seven position players – who earned first- or second-team honors on the All-America teams selected by Baseball America, USA Today Sports Weekly and Collegiate Baseball magazine (he was second team on all three). The other six position players with that unique distinction include two catchers (South Carolina’s Landon Powell and Cal State Fullerton’s Kurt Suzuki), plus Stanford second baseman Jed Lowrie, Arizona State shortstop Dustin Pedroia, Nebraska third baseman Alex Gordon and William & Mary outfielder Chris Rahl.
See the following PDF link and/or previous postseason releases for updated biographies on Macri, Sollmann and Johnson:
ND Baseball Draftee Bio Updates in PDF Format
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Notre Dame was one of just four schools with a full-time position player and pitcher on the NCBWA All-America teams. The others with that distinction included South Carolina (catcher Landon Powell, starting pitcher Aaron Rawl and reliever Chad Blackwell), Southern Mississippi (second baseman Jarrett Hoffpauir, outfielder Ryan Frith and reliever Austin Tubb) and LSU (outfielder Jon Zeringue and starter Clay Dirks).
Doherty will enter his junior season in 2005 with a 2.30 career ERA that is on pace to best the standing Notre Dame record set by fellow All-American Nick Palihnich 33 years ago (2.36, from 1959-61). The 7-foot-1, 205-pound righthander also has compiled 12.93 strikeouts per nine innings while allowing just 5.75 hits per 9 IP – with both stats also on line to break standing Notre Dame records held by Dan McGinn (who averaged 12.66 Ks and 6.27 hits from 1964-65). Doherty’s 4.091 career strikeout-to-walk ratio narrowly leads teammate Chris Niesel (4.088) atop that ND career list, with the standing record held by Alan Walania (4.00, ’90-’93).
Doherty’s All-America season included 12 saves (in 13 chances), just one shy of J.P. Gagne’s ND record (13, in ’03) and good for 8th in nation during 2004, plus a 2.38 ERA that would have ranked 33rd in the nation (his 34 innings left him short of the NCAA minimum of 1 IP per team game). He also posted a 5-1 record, owned a strikeout average (12.18 per 9 IP) that would have ranked 5th in the nation if he met the NCAA innings minimum, and allowed just 19 hits for a .160 opponent batting average. The big closer allowed just 1-of-17 inherited baserunners to score in 2004, stranding 16 straight to close the season (see complete updated bio. on Doherty below), and owned a .227 opponent slugging percentage that ranks better than most pitchers’ opponent batting averages.
In addition to the seven position players listed above (including Macri), the 14 players who were first/second-team All-Americans on the Baseball America, USA Today and Collegiate Baseball lists include seven pitchers: Matt Fox (Central Florida), J.P. Howell (Texas), Jered Weaver (Long Beach State), Juston Hoyman (Florida), Mike Pelfrey (Wichita State) and the Rice duo of Wade Townsend and Phillip Humber.
Here are links to the Baseball America All-America team and the NCBWA website (the ABCA all-region and All-America teams will be posted later at abca.org):
http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/college/040617aateam.html
http://www.sportswriters.net/ncbwa
All-America Team Notes – ND players now have been named to the Baseball America All-America teams seven times: CFs Dan Peltier (’89), Eric Danapils (’93) and Steve Stanley (’01, ’02), 3Bs Brant Ust (’98) and Matt Macri (’04), and RHP Aaron Heilman (’01) … Macri becomes the fourth ND player ever named a 1st/2nd team All-American by both BA and Collegiate Baseball magazine (since ’91; also Danapils, Heilman and Stanley in ’02) … three previous ND teams also have featured a position player and a pitcher who have earned All-America honors: Ust and Heilman in ’98, Stanley and Heilman in ’01, and the ’03 trio of 2B Steve Sollmann, RH starter Chris Niesel and closer J.P. Gagne … Doherty is the third ND closer to receive All-America honors (also Heilman in ’98 and Gagne in ’03) … Doherty also joins Heilman (’98), Ust (’99) and Niesel (’03) as the fourth ND sophomore to be named All-America … he is the program’s fifth pitcher to gain All-America status, joining Nick Pahilnich (’60), Heilman (’98-’01), Niesel (’03) and Gagne (’03) in that distinction … several players from ND’s 2004 opponents were on the BA and NCBWA All-America teams: Central Florida RHP Matt Fox (1st tm BA, 2nd tm NCBWA), Texas Tech 1B Josh Brady (2nd tm on both), Rutgers OF Jeff Frazier (2nd tm BA, 3rd tm NCBWA), Florida Atlantic DH Jeff Fiorentino (3rd tm BA), Minnesota LHP Glen Perkins (3rd tm BA), Rutgers 2B Graig Badger (3rd tm NCBWA), Pittsburgh utility player PJ Hiser (3rd tm NCBWA) and UC Irvine closer Blair Erickson (3rd tm NCBWA) … Nebraska’s Alex Godron and Clemson’s Brad McCann were the NCBWA 1st and 2nd-team All-Americans (ahead of Macri) … ND’s four ABCA all-Mideast Region selections were most from any team (Minnesota and Eastern Michigan had three each) … ABCA All-Mideast region picks from teams on the ’04 ND schedule included: Michigan 2B Chris Gets (1st tm) and DH Brandon Roberts (2nd); Central Michigan 3B Jim Geldhof (1st); Toledo OF Sean Dobson (1st); Bowling Green OF Nolan Reimold (1st); Minnesota LHP Glen Perkins (1st), 1B Andy Hunter (2nd) and OF Sam Steidl (2nd); and Kent State RHP Andy Sonnanstine (1st).
Updated Doherty Bio. Notes (also see above) – Led 2004 staff in opponent batting avg. (.160), saves (12, one shy of ND record) and appearances (30) while ranking 2nd in ERA (2.38), 4th in strikeouts (46) and 5th in wins (5-1) … his 12 saves in ’04 rank 8th in the nation, behind South Carolina’s Chad Blackwell (19), UC Irvine’s Blair Erickson (17), Albany’s Shawn Ryan (14), San Diego State’s Ryan Schroyer (13), Oral Roberts’ Justin Ramsey (13), Santa Clara’s Anthony Rea (13) and College of Charleston’s Brett Harker (13) … his 2.38 ERA would have ranked 33rd in nation (shy of NCAA min. IP) while his 12.18 Ks/9 IP would have ranked 5th in all of Division I baseball, behind Long Beach State’s Jered Weaver (13.3), Washington’s Tim Lincecum (12.9), Old Dominion’s Justin Verlander (12.9) and William & Mary’s Bill Bray (12.8) … led ’04 staff in strikeouts (12.18) and fewest hits allowed (5.03) per 9 innings – with both marks ranking 2nd in the ND record book (Frank Carpin averaged 12.63 Ks/9 IP in ’58 while Ed Lupton allowed 4.83 hits/9 IP in ’63) … also averaged 2.91 walks per 9 IP (5th on ’04 staff) while compiling 4.18 K-to-walk ratio that ranked 2nd on staff and is 11th in ND record book … allowed just 29% of leadoff batters to reach bsae (3rd-best on staff) while owning team-best .170 opp. batting with runners on base and .178 with 2 outs (4th on staff) … proved to be nearly unhittable vs. righthanded batters (team-best .141) while ranking 2nd on staff with .195 opp. batting by lefthanders … led BIG EAST Conference in ’04 with 12 saves and 2nd in appearances (30), while his 2.39 ERA and .160 opp. batting would have ranked 1st on the BIG EAST charts (which use the NCAA min.) … also led BIG EAST with 5 saves in conference games (his 3.35 conference ERA would have ranked 11th and his .159 opp. batting 1st) … his .160 overall opp. batting avg. would have broken the ND record (since ’91) held by David Sinnes (.163 in ’92, with a min. of 40 IP) … his other ’04 stats included 11 walks, 5 hit batters, 5 doubles and just 1 home run allowed (for a .277 opp. slugging pct.), a single wild pitch and 1-of-17 inherited baserunners scored … combined with pair of setup pitchers, senior LHP Joe Thaman (29) and freshman RHP Dan Kapala (28), to each log 28-plus appearances (no previous ND team has even two pitchers with 28-plus) … helped ’04 staff rank 10th in nation with 3.36 team EEA … key member of ’04 bullpen that posted 2.97 season ERA, 19-3 record, .225 opp. batting avg. and 2.6 K-to-walk ratio … compiled 15-inning midseason scoreless streak while not allowing a hit in 31 straight at-bats … his 30 appearances rank 3rd in ND history, behind Mike Coffey (37, in ’89) and Aaron Heilman (31, in ’98) … averaged nearly 18 outs per 9 IP via Ks or groundouts (5.3) … posted nearly identical strikeout and walk totals in ’03 (44/11) and ’04 (46/11) … his career stats include 2.30 ERA, 12.93 Ks/9 IP, 5.75 H/9 IP and 4.09 K-to-BB ratio (all on pace for ND records), plus 13 saves, a 7-1 record, a .179 opp. batting avg., 90 Ks, 22 BB and 40 H in 62.2 IP, a .232 opp. slugging pct. and just 8 extra-base hits allowed (6 2B, 2 HR), 22 R/16 ER, 3 WP, 8 HB and 3.16 BB/9 IP in 40 GP/1 GS … his 13 career saves already are 3rd in ND record book, behind John Corbin’s 20 from ’97-’00 and J.P. Gagne’s 19 from ’00-’03 (Corbin was one of several recent ND players who attended the ’04 South Bend Regional, as were Andrew Bushey, Drew Duff, Jeff Felker, Matt Nussbaum, Allen Greene, Randall Brooks and Scott Sollmann) … needs to make 21 appearances in ’05 to crack that ND top-10 career list … his top saves in 2004 came at #20 USC (3-1; IP, BB, HB, 2 Ks), vs. #19 Arizona in Round Rock, Texas (4-2; 1.2 IP, H, K), game 1 and game 3 of a three-game sweep at West Virginia (IP, H, BB, K in 5-3 game, then recorded final out in 6-2 win), lateseason home games vs. #20 Central Florida (3-2; IP, 3 H, 2 R, BB) and Virginia Tech (2-1; IP, 2 Ks), and 6-5 win over UC Irvine in NCAA elimination game (IP, H, 2 Ks) … winning pitcher in 3-2 game at #12 Florida Atlantic (1.1 IP, H, BB, K), adding noteworthy wins over Southern Illinois (12-11 in 11 innings, at San Antonio; 1.2 IP, 2 H, R, 2 Ks), Boston College (6-4; 1.1 IP, BB, 3 Ks) and Ball State (7-6 in 15 inn.; 1.2 IP, 4 Ks).