SEC Baseball Awards

HOOVER, Ala. - The Southeastern Conference on Monday announced its 2015 Baseball Awards and All-SEC Teams, recognizing standout performances from this season. The 2015 SEC Baseball Tournament is set to take place Tuesday through Sunday at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.

Arkansas' Andrew Benintendi was named the SEC Player of the Year, Vanderbilt's Carson Fulmer is the SEC Pitcher of the Year, LSU's Alex Lange is the SEC Freshman of the Year, LSU's Paul Mainieri is the SEC Coach of the Year and Mississippi State's Seth Heck is the SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

Benintendi leads the SEC in batting average both overall (.415) and in conference games only (.443). He currently ranks sixth nationally in batting average, and is the conference leader and ranks fourth nationally in home runs this season (17). Benintendi is the national leader in slugging percentage with a .771 clip and is in the top-five in the nation in on-base percentage at .511. He was the only SEC player to hit better than .400 in conference play. Benintendi has reached safely in 26 consecutive games, including 41 of his last 59 plate appearances. He has hit safely in 24 of the last 26 games, including a career-long 10 consecutive games. He did not strikeout over his final 46 plate appearances of the regular season. Benintendi is the first Arkansas player to be named SEC Player of the Year.

Fulmer became the third Vanderbilt player all-time to earn SEC Pitcher of the Year honors, joining David Price and Grayson Garvin. He wrapped up the SEC pitching triple crown on Thursday night to lead the league in wins (11), ERA (1.51) and strikeouts (132). Fulmer has moved into a tie with Sonny Gray for the third-most strikeouts in a single season by a Commodore with 132 punch outs this season. He is the first pitcher to win the SEC triple crown since Tennessee's Luke Hochevar in 2005. He finishes the regular season as the only pitcher in the league with an ERA under 2.00 and the only pitcher with more than 100 strikeouts.

Lange is the fifth LSU player since 2000 to earn SEC Freshman of the Year accolades. He ranks second in the SEC in ERA overall (2.11) and third in conference games only (2.33). Lange is one of only three pitchers in the SEC to strike out 90 or more batters, and is one of only two SEC pitchers to earn 10 or more wins on the year.

Mainieri was named the SEC Coach of the Year for the second time in his career after leading LSU to their league-best SEC regular-season championship. It was the third title during Mainieri's nine-season tenure. LSU also won the SEC Western Division title for the 18th time in school history and for the fifth time under Mainieri. The Tigers finished the regular season with 46 wins, the third-highest regular-season total in school history.

Heck has earned a 4.0 GPA every semester he has been at Mississippi State, including spring 2015. He graduated May 9 with a degree in business administration and was Mississippi State's male nominee for the H. Boyd McWhorter Scholar-Athlete Post-Graduate Scholarship, given to the league's top scholar-athlete. Heck was named to the 2015 Capital One Academic All-District first team for District 6, making him a candidate for 2015 Academic All-America honors. The 2014 SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year, Heck has been a member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll every year he had been on campus.

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2015 SEC Baseball Awards

Player of the Year: Andrew Benintendi, Arkansas

Pitcher of the Year: Carson Fulmer, Vanderbilt

Freshman of the Year: Alex Lange, LSU

Coach of the Year: Paul Mainieri, LSU

Scholar-Athlete of the Year: Seth Heck, Mississippi State

First-Team All-SEC

C: Kade Scivicque, LSU
1B: Kyle Martin, South Carolina
2B: JaVon Shelby, Kentucky
3B: Conner Hale, LSU
SS: Alex Bregman, LSU
OF: Andrew Benintendi, Arkansas
OF: Andrew Stevenson, LSU
OF: Christin Stewart, Tennessee
DH/UT: Mitchell Nau, Texas A&M
SP: Carson Fulmer, Vanderbilt
SP: Alex Lange, LSU
RP: Zach Jackson, Arkansas

Second-Team All-SEC Team

C: Mike Rivera, Florida
1B: Chris Chinea, LSU
2B: Max Schrock, South Carolina
3B: Josh Tobias, Florida
SS: Dansby Swanson, Vanderbilt
OF: Kyle Barrett, Kentucky
OF: Nick Banks, Texas A&M
OF: Logan Taylor, Texas A&M
DH/UT: JJ Schwarz, Florida
SP: Grayson Long, Texas A&M
SP: Cole Lipscomb, Auburn
*RP: Breckin Williams, Missouri
*RP: Wyatt Short, Ole Miss

Freshman All-SEC Team

C: Mike Rivera, Florida
1B: Evan White, Kentucky
2B: Dalton Guthrie, Florida
3B: Will Toffey, Vanderbilt
SS: Ryan Gridley, Mississippi State
OF: Keegan McGovern, Georgia
OF: Trey Harris, Missouri
OF: Jeren Kendall, Vanderbilt
DH/UT: JJ Schwarz, Florida
SP: Tanner Houck, Missouri
SP: Keaton McKinney, Arkansas
RP: Kyle Wright, Vanderbilt

SEC All-Defensive Team

C: Kade Scivicque, LSU
1B: Evan White, Kentucky
2B: Kyle Overstreet, Alabama
3B: Bobby Wernes, Arkansas
SS: Alex Bregman, LSU
OF: Andrew Stevenson, LSU
OF: Mark Laird, LSU
OF: Buddy Reed, Florida
P: Carson Fulmer, Vanderbilt

* - Denotes a tie in voting. Ties are not broken.