June 8, 2009

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Lamar pitcher Eric Harrington has been named to the 2009 Pro-Line Athletic National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) Division I Freshman All-America team, as announced by the organization on Monday.

Harrington completed his rookie season with an 8-1 record and a 3.01 earned run average. He struck out 63 batters while throwing a team-high 83.2 innings. The 5-foot-9 right-hander opened the season with a 7-0 mark, good for the third best undefeated stretch to open a campaign in school history.

Harrington, who is a second team selection on the two-team list, is one of nine starting pitchers named to the squad and one of 15 hurlers overall among the 37 honored student-athletes.

This is the second such honor for the Groves, Texas native, following his inclusion on the Louisville Slugger Freshman All-America team last week.

He is the eighth Cardinal to earn freshman all-America honors and the third in the last six years. Previous first-year honorees have included Anthony Iapoce in 1992, Kevin Lane in 1993, Wes Koch and Heath Totten in 1998, Josh Gray in 2001, Derrick Gordon in 2004 and Tim Erickson in 2005. He is the first true freshman to pick up all-America plaudits since Koch and Totten in 1998.

Earlier this season he was named the Southland Conference Freshman of the Year and first team All-SLC.

Lamar ended the season with a 38-22 overall mark and a 20-13 ledger in SLC action. The 38 overall wins are the ninth-consecutive year for the Cards to post at least 30 victories and are the most since capturing 41 wins in 2004.

The Cardinals have recorded three-consecutive 20-win league seasons for the first time in school history and are the only SLC school to finish in the top four of the conference regular-season standings in each of the last seven years.