Even though the season is behind him, a Stony Brook baseball player is still making headlines. Two-way player Erik Paulsen was named to the D1Baseball Freshman All-America First Team and the Freshman All-America First Team by Baseball America.
This is now the third and fourth award that Paulsen has received for Freshman All-America recognition. He was also honored last month by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) and Perfect Game organization as a Freshman All-American. Paulsen was the 16th player in program history to be named a Freshman All-American.
The program's first CAA Rookie of the Year award winner did his best Ohtani impression this season from the mound and the batter's box. Paulsen was the closer for the Hawks and tied for sixth in the CAA with six saves, which was also tied for fifth most in program history and ranked second of any freshman in the country. In 15 appearances he had 24 strikeouts to go along with his 3.21 ERA.
At the plate Paulsen ranked top-three on the team in batting average (.299), on-base percentage, hits (53), home runs (4), runs batted in (24), doubles (16) and total bases (81). He was also tied for second on the team in multi-hit games (14) and tied for third in multi-RBI games (5).
During the season, Paulsen became the first player in program history and only player from the CAA to be recognized as one of 10 semifinalists for the historic John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year Award by the College Baseball Foundation, which honors the best two-way player in Division I.
He also earned CAA Rookie of the Week honors on three different occasions (March 4, March 11 and April 25), becoming the only player in the conference to earn the weekly honor three different times this season. At the end of the season, he was named All-CAA Honorable Mention and selected to the All-CAA Rookie Team.
Paulsen becomes the 16th player in program history to be named a Freshman All-American and the first in program history to be named a Freshman All-American by four different publications.