Benedict, Phillips Named All-America
6/11/2009 6:18:00 PM | Baseball
STATESBORO, Ga. ? Two Georgia Southern Baseball players received All-America awards by national organizations. Senior catcher Griffin Benedict (Dunwoody/St. Pius) was named to the 2009 Rivals.com All-America squad while freshman infielder Eric Phillips (Carrollton/Carrollton) was named Second Team Freshman All-America by Ping!Baseball.
Benedict was one of 16 players (chosen by position) named to the Rivals.com squad. He had been listed as their top catcher in the country over the final month of the season. Benedict finished with the team lead hitting 14 home runs. He hit three homers and finished 6-for-9 at the plate at the NCAA Fullerton Regional, ending the season with a .412 batting average ? tied for seventh-best in a season. He hit two doubles, scored five runs and drove in four in the two games.
The First Team All-Southern Conference pick hit 17 doubles, scored 67 runs and drove in 65. He set the Georgia Southern single season record with 24 hit by pitches and finished his career second all-time with 53. Benedict also walked (34) more times than he struck out on the year (31) in 221 at-bats. He finished 8-for-8 in stolen bases and posted a .988 fielding percentage.
Among the national leaders, Benedict currently stands 35th in batting average, fourth in hit by pitches, seventh in on-base percentage (.528), 59th in RBI and 84th in slugging percentage (.679). Earlier this year he tied a NCAA single-game record hitting two home runs during the same inning in a 14-4 win over #20 East Carolina.
He played in 225 career games as an Eagle, tying for 10th place on that all-time list. Benedict also finished his career ranked sixth in runs (192) and tied for sixth in RBI (195). He posted a .342 all-time batting average with 53 doubles (tied 7th) and 33 home runs. Benedict was one of two players in program history to record 60 runs scored/60 RBI in two consecutive years.
Phillips was selected as a utility infielder by Ping!Baseball. Seeing action mainly at first base, Phillips was the only Eagle in years to start at every infield position (30 at 1st base; 3 at second base; 1 at shortstop; 12 at third base; 2 at designated hitter), starting 48 times in 51 games played.
He finished his rookie year batting .333 with 43 runs scored, 45 RBI, 13 doubles and four home runs. He walked as many times (18) as he struck out in 195 at-bats. Phillips, who spent most of the Southern Conference schedule batting clean-up, led the Eagles with a .413 batting average in league play scoring 26 runs and driving in 28 in 26 games played.
Named to the SoCon All-Freshman Team, Phillips also came through in the clutch batting .615 with the bases loaded and recorded 17 RBI in 22 opportunities with a runner on third base and less than two outs. He recorded a .984 fielding percentage on the year, playing a role in 36 of the team's 60 double plays turned.
The Eagles ended the season 42-17 and Southern Conference Tournament champions. The 42 wins tied for sixth-most in program history. The .712 winning percentage ranked ninth all-time and sixth-best in the Division I era.
