ROSEMONT, Ill. – A quintet of Nittany Lions earned Big Ten baseball honors, as Penn State seniors Greg Guers and Jack Anderson were named All-Big Ten, rookies Willie Burger and Justin Hagenman were named to the All-Big Ten Freshman team and Alex Malinsky was a Big Ten Sportsmanship Award recipient. The selections, made by the league’s head coaches, were announced Tuesday afternoon by the conference office.
The postseason awards were the first for all five. Guers, an outfielder, earned second-team recognition and Anderson, a relief pitcher, was named to the third team, becoming Penn State’s first All-Big Ten selections since 2012 and the first of head coach Rob Cooper’s three-season tenure. Burger and Hagenman are the Lions’ first all-freshman honorees since recent graduate James Coates was a unanimous pick in 2013, and their selections mark just the second time Penn State has had two named to the team since it was instituted in 2009.
The honorees all helped lead Penn State to its first winning season since 2012.
Guers set career highs for batting average (.313), runs (40), hits (62), walks (20), on-base percentage (.369) and stolen bases this season, while matching his career-high for RBIs with 38. His stolen base total ranked fourth in the league, and he was particularly strong in Big Ten play, ranking sixth overall and second amongst outfielders with a .354 batting average.
Guers had a slow start to the season, batting just .189 over the first 24 games, but he led the Nittany Lions over the final 30 games with a .387 average, 11 doubles, four home runs, 26 RBIs and 15 stolen bases. He broke out of the early slump with a seven-game hitting streak that featured six-multi-hit games. He was particularly hot from April 11-17, making just four outs in four games going 13-for-17 (.765) with eight RBIs, a home run, two doubles and five stolen bases to earn both All-Big Ten Player of the Week and NCBWA National Hitter of the Week honors.
Anderson was a mainstay at the back-end of games, setting Penn State’s single-season record for saves with 13 to tie for the league lead. He totaled a career-best 2.14 ERA in 54 2/3 innings pitched, just a third of an inning shy of being eligible to qualify amongst the league leaders for ERA. Of his 29 appearances on the year, which tied for the second most in program history second in the league this year, only five were for an inning or less.
Anderson also set new career standards at Penn State for saves with 25 and appearances with 98. In 165 2/3 career innings pitched, he never allowed a home run.
Burger was a unanimous selection to the all-freshman team at first base. He was named the Big Ten Player of the Week once and the Big Ten Freshman of the Week twice during his inaugural campaign. Despite only playing in 39 games, Burger was second on the team with 34 RBIs, and he batted .250 for the season. He led Penn State with 10 multiple RBI games. Burger claimed both the Big Ten Baseball Player and Freshman of the Week honors for the week of Mar. 14-20 going 7-for-11 with six RBIs to become the first conference player of the week for Penn State since 2012 (Jordan Steranka). Burger was injured the following week, but returned after 12 missed games to bat .467 (7-for-15) with a home run and five RBIs in his first week to earn the weekly freshman award again.
Hagenman is the first Penn State pitcher to reach six wins since 2011. He started the finales of all of Penn State’s weekend series, finishing with an ERA of 3.84 in 82 innings pitched. His best outing came at Illinois, as he pitched 8 1/3 innings, allowing only an unearned run early and then two earned runs in the ninth scored after he departed. He also matched his career high of six strikeouts and allowed just four hits and two walks.
One of Penn State’s most respected players, Malinsky did not lack for on-field accomplishments either. He most notably hit a walk-off double in a 12-inning victory over Purdue. Malinsky will carry a five-game reached base streak into the 2017 season.