DALLAS – After a stellar season, leading the league in home runs (25) that helped pace Old Dominion to a three seed in the Conference USA Championship next week, 3B/1B Matt Coutney brought home the 2022 C-USA Player of the Year honors. RHP Tanner Hall led the regular season champion Southern Miss Golden Eagles on the mound and led the league in strikeouts (120) on his way to being named C-USA Pitcher of the Year. The league’s baseball awards were announced on Tuesday in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, the site of the 2022 C-USA Baseball Championship, presented by The First. The league’s awards, All-Conference and All-Freshman teams were voted on by the league’s 12 head coaches.
 
Florida Atlantic OF Gabriel Rincones, Jr., was named the C-USA Newcomer of the Year, while Louisiana Tech INF Logan McLeod was named Defensive Player of the Year. Old Dominion LHP Blake Morgan, the league leader in ERA, was named the league’s Freshman of the Year. Southern Miss’ Scott Berry was named the Keith LeClair Coach of the Year, while his pitching coach Christian Ostrander earned the Assistant Coach of the Year honor for the second-consecutive season.
 
Old Dominion had the most first-team All-Conference selections with four, while Southern Miss and LA Tech each were represented by three. Nine of the league’s teams had at least one representative on an all-conference team. Both Charlotte and UAB garnered the most selections on the All-Freshman Team, with two apiece.
 
Coutney, an Edmonton, Alberta, native, finished the regular season ranked fourth in the country in home runs, hit .364, slugged a league-best .806 and drove in 65 runs for a potent Monarch offense in 53 appearances.
 
Hall finished the regular season 7-2 with a 2.68 ERA for No. 17 Southern Miss, striking out 120 batters compared to just 10 walks in 87.1 innings of work over 13 starts, holding opposing batters to a paltry .227 batting average against.
 
Rincones, Jr., a transfer from St. Petersburg College, hit .346 with 18 home runs, 66 RBI, and paced the league in total bases with 150 in his first season at Florida Atlantic. His 79 hits ranked third in C-USA, smacked 17 doubles and finished with .658 slugging percentage.
 
McLeod was a defensive anchor for Louisiana Tech, posting a .977 fielding percentage, and had just three errors for the Bulldogs.
 
Morgan burst on the scene for the Monarchs, finishing his regular season 7-0 with a league-best 1.41 ERA across 63.2 innings of work in 12 starts. He allowed just 10 earned runs, struck out 65 to just seven walks and only allowed a pair of long balls, limiting opposing hitters to a .216 average against him.
 
After leading Southern Miss to the regular season title, Berry earned the Keith LeClair Coach of the Year honor. The Golden Eagles finished 23-7 in conference play and 41-14 overall in the regular season. Southern Miss won eight of 10 conference series, and has non-conference wins over defending national champion Mississippi State as well as Ole Miss on its resume.
 
Ostrander, who also won Assistant Coach of the Year in 2021, again led the Golden Eagles pitching staff that posted the nation’s second-best ERA (3.08). Under his tutelage, Hall, the league’s Pitcher of the Year, and fellow sophomores Hurston Waldrep (6-1 with a 2.85 ERA) and Landon Harper (league-best 10 saves), thrived for Southern Miss. The Golden Eagles spun a league-high six shutouts, holding opponents to a .225 batting average, also the league’s best across 497.0 innings.
 
2022 C-USA Superlative Awards
Player of the Year
Matt Coutney, Sr., 3B/1B, Old Dominion
 
Pitcher of the Year
Tanner Hall, So., RHP, Southern Miss
 
Newcomer of the Year
Gabriel Rincones, Jr., So., OF, Florida Atlantic
 
Defensive Player of the Year
Logan McLeod, So., INF, Louisiana Tech
 
Freshman of the Year
Blake Morgan, Fr., LHP, Old Dominion
 
Assistant Coach of the Year
Christian Ostrander, Southern Miss
 
Keith LeClair Coach of the Year
Scott Berry, Southern Miss
 
First Team All-Conference
C – Brock Gagliardi, Sr., Old Dominion
INF – Matt Coutney, Sr., Old Dominion
INF – Nolan Schanuel, So., Florida Atlantic
INF – Taylor Young, Sr., LA Tech
INF – Jack Dragum, Jr., Charlotte
OF – Andy Garriola, Sr., Old Dominion
OF – Cole McConnell, So., LA Tech
OF – Gabriel Rincones, Jr., So., Florida Atlantic
P – Tanner Hall, So., Southern Miss
P – Blake Morgan, Fr., Old Dominion
P – Hurston Waldrep, So., Southern Miss
P – Luke Malone, RS Jr., UTSA
RP – Kyle Crigger, Sr., LA Tech
RP – Landon Harper, So., Southern Miss
DH – David McCabe, So., Charlotte
UTIL – Luke Edwards, Jr., Marshall
 
Second Team All-Conference
C – Jorge Corona, So., LA Tech
INF – Leyton Barry, Jr., UTSA
INF – Nate Furman, So., Charlotte
INF – Dustin Dickerson, So., Southern Miss
INF – JT Mabry, Jr., Middle Tennessee
OF – Carter Trice, So., Old Dominion
OF – Cam Fisher, Fr., Charlotte
OF – Dylan Goldstein, So., Florida Atlantic
P – Hunter Cooley, Sr., Florida Atlantic
P – Jaden Hamm, So., Middle Tennessee
P – Trent Seibert, Sr., Middle Tennessee
P – Cade Gibson, RS Sr., LA Tech
RP – Ryan Harland, Fr., LA Tech
RP – Collin Taylor, RS Sr., UAB
DH – Christian Hall, Jr., UAB
UTIL – Jonathan Tapia, Sr., UTSA
 
All-Freshman Team
P – Blake Morgan, Fr., Old Dominion
OF – Carson Paetow, RS Fr., Southern Miss
OF – Cam Fisher, Fr., Charlotte
P – Ryan Harland, Fr., LA Tech
C/DH – Ty Batusich, Fr., WKU
P – Collin Kramer, Fr., Charlotte
P – James Sells, Fr., Middle Tennessee
INF – Aaron Smigelski, Fr., Rice
C – Henry Hunter, Fr., UAB
INF – Matt King, Fr., UTSA
P – Thomas Ballard, Fr., UAB
 
Several members of the All-Conference and All-Freshman Teams, as well as all of the superlative award-winners will be in action later this week at the 2022 C-USA Baseball Championship, presented by The First, in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Championship action begins with a four-game slate from Pete Taylor Park starting at 9 a.m. CT on Wednesday.
 
Championship Central