Three Spartans Earn All-Big Ten Baseball Honors

May 20, 2003

EAST LANSING, Mich. - Three Michigan State baseball players landed spots on the All-Big Ten Team that was released Tuesday afternoon (May 20) by the conference office. Senior catcher Brady Burrill (Newhall, Calif.) and junior right-hander Bryan Gale (Decatur) were named to the second team, while sophomore outfielder Travis Gulick (East Lansing) was named to the third team. All three earned Big Ten honors for the first time in their careers.

Minnesota, who claimed the Big Ten regular season championship, took three of the four individual awards. Luke Appert earned Big Ten Player of the Year honors, while left-handed pitcher Glen Perkins took Freshman of the Year honors and John Anderson took Coach of the Year honors. Ohio State's Scott Lewis was named the Pitcher of the Year.

Gale, who was named Big Ten Pitcher of the Week on Feb. 25, was one of four pitchers named to the second team. The junior led MSU in every major pitching statistical category, including wins (7), ERA (3.48), strikeouts (53) and innings pitched (95 2/3), and was named the team's Most Valauble Player and Pitcher of the Year at the annual banquet on May 19. He was consistently one of the top pitchers in the Big Ten, ranking first in the regular season statistics in innings and games started (13), second in opposing batting average (.227), tied for fourth in wins, sixth in ERA and tied for seventh in strikeouts. Gale posted a 5-3 mark in conference play with five complete games.

Gale will bring a 24-11 record into his senior season, which already ranks second in the history of the program. He will be looking to break Stuart Hirschman's all-time record of 28 wins. Gale also ranks third in MSU history in innings pitched (259 1/3) and fourth in strikeouts (184).

Burrill earned All-Big Ten honors for the first time in his career after finishing second in league play in batting (.392) and ninth in on-base percentage (.438). A superb defensive player, Burrill led the conference in pickoffs and threw out 20 runners on the basepaths. The co-captain only made two errors all season and eight in his career, good for a .991 fielding percentage, and was named MSU's Defensive Player of the Year. Burrill, a preseason All-American as selected by Collegiate Baseball, was one of 30 finalists for the 2003 Johnny Bench Award, which is given to the nation's premier catcher.

Gulick, MSU's Offensive Player of the Year, blasted seven homers and ranked first in league play with 31 runs to land third-team honors. Through the end of the Big Ten regular season, Gulick led the league in hits (78) and runs scored (60), and ranked among the Top 10 in: batting (.370 - seventh), total bases (136 - second), slugging percentage (.645 - fifth), on-base percentage (.435 - sixth), home runs (13 - second) and RBI (43 - seventh). Gulick's spectacular numbers landed him among the Top 10 in MSU single-season history for runs (fourth), total bases (fifth), runs (seventh) and home runs (eighth).

POSITION FIRST TEAM                    SECOND TEAM       THIRD TEAMFirst Base  Andy Schutzenhofer, ILL        David Roach, MINN    Travis Tharp, NWSecond Base Luke Appert, MINN #        Drew Anderson, OSU   Corby Heckman, INDShortstop   Scott Welch, MINN          Eric Eymann, ILL     Jon Mikrut, NWThird Base  Vasili Spanos, IND         Brock Koman, MICH    Simon Klink, PUROutfield    Sam Steidl, MINN           Kyle Thousand, IOWA      Travis Gulick, MSU        Christian Snavely, OSU         Gino Lollio, MICH    Ben Pattee, MINN        Daniel Underwood, PUR          David Gresky, NW     Wes Reohr, PSUDH          Mike Sokol, MICH           Andy Hunter, MINN    Steve Caravati, OSUCatcher     Jake Fox, MICH             Brady Burrill, MSU       Derek Kinnear, OSU*                                    Ben Fritz, PUR *
Pitcher     Drew Taylor, MICH          Bryan Gale, MSU      Joe Ziemba, ILL *        Glen Perkins, MINN #           C.J. Woodrow, MINN   Nathan Johnson, IA *        J.A. Happ, NW              Dan Konecny, NW      Matt Loberg, MINN *        Scott Lewis, OSU #             Josh Newman, OSU     Dan Brauer, NW *                                    Jim Farrell, PSU *Relief Pitcher  Matt Davis, OSU            Jeff Moen, MINN      Clint Eury, PSU
# - Unanimous selection* - Additional honorees due to ties
PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Luke Appert, MinnesotaPITCHER OF THE YEAR: Scott Lewis, Ohio StateFRESHMAN OF THE YEAR: Glen Perkins, MinnesotaCOACH OF THE YEAR: John Anderson, Minnesota

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