College baseball: Miller, Horwitz and Anderson named all conference

ANTEATER BALLPARK - The UC Irvine baseball team’s impressive season

-- a 33-26 record after a 10-year hiatus, has resulted in five selections

to the Big West All-Conference teams. Chris Miller, Jon Horwitz and Matt

Anderson were named to the Big West All-Conference second team, while

Chris Klemm and R.J. Brown earned honorable mention honors.

Miller, a junior catcher, paced the Anteaters with 12 home runs,

setting a new UCI single-season record. He also amassed 19 doubles, 129

total bases and topped the stats with a .542 slugging average to lead the

starters.

Miller was also third on the squad with 74 hits and earned Big West

Player of the Week honors after hitting .500 against UC Riverside, when

the Anteaters ended the season, winning six out of eight Big West

Conference series. His 14 multiple-RBI games was also a team high and he

ended the season with a .311 batting average.

Horwitz, a junior center fielder, finished the season with a .388

batting average, holding the second spot in the conference for the past

three weeks and stood among the top ten Big West batters for ten straight

weeks.

Horwitz was second in hits for UCI with 83 and 16 doubles. He added 42

runs to his total and was second with 10 stolen bases. Horwitz was the

first Anteater to be awarded Player of the Week honors (Mar. 19).

First baseman Matt Anderson, a freshman first baseman from Long Beach

Millikan High, also received second-team honors. He led the team with 91

hits, 57 runs and 28 multiple-hit games. Anderson was among the top ten

conference hitters for 13 consecutive weeks and also earned Player of the

Week honors (April 29). Anderson once held a 13-game hitting streak,

tying the individual high with Klemm.

Klemm, a junior outfielder who played for Cuesta College with Miller

last year, earned a starting spot early in conference action and remained

a fixture in right field for UCI. Klemm finished the season with a .335

average and added 59 hits, 30 runs, 15 doubles, two triples and 38 RBIs.

Klemm also gave the squad a boost on the base paths with eight stolen

bases and remained errorless in the outfield.

Brown rounds out the list of conference honors for UCI. The designated

hitter finished the year hitting .266. In 52 games, the freshman tallied

39 RBIs, 38 hits, 17 runs, nine doubles and five home runs. Brown was

second on the squad with 12 multiple-RBI games, recording three four-RBI

games this season for an individual high. Brown was one of two Anteaters

to hit two home runs in a game, hitting two against Cal State Northridge.

Long Beach State’s Abe Alvarez earned top honors as Pitcher of the

Year, while Cal State Northridge’s Erick Verbryke was named the Player of

the Year. Matador skipper Mike Batesole was named conference Coach of the

Year, guiding his squad to their first Big West title and a postseason

berth.