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Indiana's Carter Mathison and Josh Pyne Earn NCBWA All-American Honors

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Baseball

The second Freshman All-America honors for outfielder Carter Mathison and third baseman Josh Pyne came from the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association.

They each earned second team honors and gave Indiana the only pair of position players from the same school on the list.

Indiana was one of five programs with two Freshman All-Americans, joining Oregon State, Tennessee, Virginia Tech and UCLA. IU was the only program with more multiple position players on the list, as the other four all included at least on pitcher.

Along with the honors from the NCBWA, Mathison and Pyne joined teammate Brock Tibbitts on the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper Freshman All-America team. It marks the third time in program history that multiple IU freshmen earned national honors (2012 & 2013).

Mathison set or tied two IU freshman records and Pyne joined an exclusive freshman group, as each earned All-Big Ten Freshman Team honors from the conference coaches at season's end.

The freshman single-season home runs leader at Indiana, Mathison became the first freshman since Sam Travis in 2012 to lead the team in home runs. His 19 long balls rank No. 2 all-time in Big Ten history among freshmen (21 - Brad Carlson, Iowa; 1999), passed Alex Dickerson's IU freshman mark of 14 (2009) and finished tied for No. 5 on Indiana's single-season charts.

The 19 home runs helped the left-handed hitter produce 58 RBIs on the season, which tied the IU freshman record set by Phil Dauphin in 1988. The 58 RBIs ranked No. 2 among Power 5 freshmen nationally and led all Big Ten rookies. Along with his team-leading 19 home runs, he also paced the team with 55 runs scored and was second on the team in RBIs.

Pyne was among the top hitters in the Big Ten with a .327 batting average, which was second among B1G rookies, while his 57 RBIs ranked No. 2 in the Big Ten and No. 7 nationally among rookies – No. 3 among Power 5 freshmen. That RBI total is also tied for No. 3 on Indiana freshman-only charts with Dickerson (2009) and Mike Sabo (1985)

On the year, the right-handed hitter piled up 74 hits to become the sixth Hoosier freshman to reach the 70-hit mark and the first freshman to lead the team in hits since 2012 (Travis). That total led all Big Ten freshmen. The hit total included 20 doubles, which ranked tied for No. 8 on the single season charts, one triple and six home runs.