Dallas ? Nebraska, the Big 12 Conference’s regular-season champion for the second time in three years, swept individual league honors on Monday as Matt Hopper was named player of the year, Aaron Marsden was selected as the league’s top pitcher and Mike Anderson was picked as the coach of the year.
Lawrence High graduate Curtis Ledbetter, a sophomore left fielder, was named to the all-league first team as a designated hitter. He was one of four Cornhuskers named to the league’s first team by in voting by the Big 12 coaches, joining Hopper, Marsden and pitcher Quinton Robertson.
The Cornhuskers (44-16) will play host to an NCAA Tournament regional, starting a best-of-three series against Eastern Michigan on Friday. Nebraska, which lost to Baylor in the Big 12 tournament semifinals, has advanced to the NCAA regionals for a fifth consecutive year.
Hopper, a fifth-year senior first baseman from Golden, Colo., hit .374 with 18 home runs and 59 RBIs.
He led the Big 12 in homers and slugging percentage (.682).
Marsden, a junior pitcher from Grand Forks, N.D., is 8-1 with a 2.78 ERA. In 107 innings, he has allowed 99 hits with 107 strikeouts.
Anderson, a seven-year assistant until taking over as Nebraska’s head coach this season, won more games in 2003 than any first-year baseball coach.
All of the individual awards and the All-Big 12 team, which included players from seven different teams, were selected by the league’s head coaches.
Texas A&M junior Scott Beerer was named newcomer of the year, while Texas freshman Taylor Teagarden was selected as the Big 12’s top freshman.
Kansas, which qualified for the league tournament for the first time, didn’t have any players on the first team, but first baseman Ryan Baty and outfielder Casey Spanish were named to the second team.
Kevin Wheeler and Ritchie Price received honorable mention.
