Make that two All American honors for Stony Brook baseball's freshman Erik Paulsen. Paulsen has been named by Perfect Game Baseball as a Postseason Freshman All American. Perfect Game announced the list this week and Paulsen was the only player from the CAA to be selected. He now becomes the first player in program history to take home the award.
Paulsen was a two-way player this season for the Seawolves. On the hill the southpaw went 2-1 in his 15 appearances in 42 innings. He was used as a bullpen arm and mostly was the closer for the Wolves. He ended with six saves and a 3.21 ERA. Paulsen's six saves, were tied for third in the CAA, tied for fifth in program history and tied for second in the country among freshmen.
He also was the designated hitter for Stony Brook this season. He finished with a slash line of .299/.392/.458. His versatility was on full display as he hit first, second, third and clean up for the Wolves this season and led all freshmen on the team and ranked top-three in numerous offensive categories. He was top 3 in batting average, 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).
Earlier this year Paulsen earned himself a spot on the CAA All-Rookie team and was an All-CAA Honorable Mention. He also was the only player in the conference to be named CAA Rookie of the Week on three different occasions during the season (March 4, March 11 and April 25).
On May 15, Paulsen was the first player in program history to be named a semifinalist 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 became the 15th freshman in program history to earn an All-American nod after the rookie was named to the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) Freshman All-America Second Team on June 12.