DALLAS, Texas - Georgia Southern relief pitcher Jay Thompson was named to the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association's Stopper of the Year Watch List late Thursday night, announced the organization. Thompson joins 80 other relievers on the national watch list for this year's award.

Thompson earns a spot of the watch list right after being named D1Baseball's 40th-best relief pitcher after leading the nation in innings pitched by a reliever with 76. Thompson made a conference-leading 37 appearances, which was also tied for third in the nation. He had the second-highest amount of strikeouts on the team with 63, only one behind the team-leading 64 from Jaylen Paden. Thompson held a 7-4 record at the end of the season with a team-high six saves, posting a 3.91 ERA.

Of the initial 81 members, 17 were featured on last year's midseason watch list. In total, 21 conferences are represented on this list with at least two players coming from 15 different leagues. Thompson was one of those 17 named to the midseason watch list last season.

The NCBWA, founded in 1962, presents the Dick Howser Trophy to the nation's top player and the Mike Martin National Coach of the Year to the nation's top coach. It also selects All-America Teams for all Divisions, a Division I Freshman All-American team, Division I, II and III Players of the Week and Division I, II and III Players of the Year.