UCI’s Morales named to midseason Golden Spikes Award watch list

UC Irvine senior pitcher Andrew Morales is among 50 baseball players named to the midseason Golden Spikes Award watch list.

Morales, 6-0 entering Friday’s scheduled start against Cal State Northridge, has a 0.45 earned-run average, fourth-best in the nation. He has pitched two complete games and has struck out 60 in 60 innings to rank 10th in the country in strikeouts. Morales is holding the opposition to a .162 batting average and currently is riding a 25 1/3 scoreless-innings streak. He is allowing 5.1 hits per nine innings, and his walks-plus-hits ratio per nine innings is 0.78, 13th best in the country.

Morales, who is also a candidate for the Senior CLASS Award, is one of five Big West representatives on the “rolling” list that ensures that athletes can play themselves into consideration for the honor.

The midseason watch list will be trimmed to 30 members by USA Baseball officials on May 8 with the semifinalists announced May 27. The list of athletes will then be sent to a voting body consisting of Golden Spikes Award winners, past USA Baseball national team coaches and press officers, members of media that closely follow the amateur game, select professional baseball personnel, and current USA Baseball staff, representing a group of more than 200 voters in total.

Fan voting will once again be a part of the Golden Spikes Award in 2014. Tuesday, May 27, marks the day when amateur baseball fans from across the country will be able to vote for their favorite semifinalist on GoldenSpikesAward.com. As part of this selection process all voters will be asked to choose three players from the list of names.

— From staff reports