Awards season continued for Rutgers baseball this past weekend. Players on both the softball and baseball teams received honors this past Friday.
From the baseball squad, junior catcher Nick Cimillo was named the District 2 Player of the Year by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA). District 2 consists of players from Connecticut, West Virginia, New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Washington D.C. Cimillo finished the season leading the entire Big Ten conference with a .385 batting average, .707 slugging percentage, and 1.199 OPS.
His 16 home runs were tied for the team lead, and he led all Scarlet Knights in walks. He was near the top of every offensive category for Rutgers baseball this season.
Also, this past Friday, Gabrielle Callaway and Kyleigh Sand from Rutgers softball heard their names called when the ECAC announced their All-ECAC teams. Callaway, a graduate student outfielder, was named to the First Team All-ECAC and the sophomore shortstop Sand received honorable mention honors. This is the third set of honors the teammates will share this year, as both previously received National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) First Team All-Region honors and were the Scarlet Knights’ first-ever First Team All-Big Ten selections.
Callaway finished the season in a second-place tie on the single-season leaders’ list in RBIs with 47, and tied for eighth with 10 home runs. She was also near the tops in the Big Ten in multiple categories, including being first in sacrifice flies with six, and sixth in RBIs.
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The Alabama native also finished the season with a slash line of .377 / .472 / .649, good for seventh, eighth, and ninth in the Big Ten, respectively.
Sand was the table-setter all season. The lead-off hitter accrued a 398 batting average, the highest from a Rutgers player since 2011, and her team-leading 49 runs helped the Scarlet Knights score their most runs since 2015. Sand’s season resulted in her name being scattered amongst the best single-season numbers in program history. She finished with second-most hits with 68, third-most runs with 49, fourth-most walks with 33, tied for fifth most steals with 23, and the sixth-best batting average.
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On the Big Ten season leaders page, she finished fourth in both hits and stolen bases, fifth in batting average and on-base percentage (.495), and finished sixth in runs.
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