Louisville’s Brendan McKay named Baseball America’s national player of the year

University of Louisville junior left-handed pitcher and first baseman Brendan McKay was named Baseball America’s 2017 National Player of the Year on Thursday.

The Darlington, Pa., native was also selected for the same honor last week by Collegiate Baseball newspaper.

McKay is the first Louisville baseball player to earn a national player of the year award and was also a first-team All-American selection as a utility player by Baseball America.

Entering this week’s NCAA Super Regional, McKay has a .356 batting average, 17 home runs, 56 RBI, .683 slugging percentage and .476 on-base percentage.

On the mound, McKay owns a 9-3 record with a 2.31 ERA and 131 strikeouts in 97.1 innings while opposing batters are hitting just .178 against him.

Along with his national player of the year awards, McKay was named the 2017 ACC Player of the Year, is a finalist for the John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year Award and is a semifinalist for the Golden Spikes Award. His other honors this season include being named National Player of the Month in February by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association, the National Midseason Player of the Year by Perfect Game, the National Midseason Most Valuable Player by D1Baseball and selected as a semifinalist for the Dick Howser Trophy.

The No. 7 national seed Cardinals (50-10) will make their fifth straight NCAA Super Regional appearance, including the fourth consecutive at home, when they host Kentucky in the best-of-three series starting at noon Friday at Jim Patterson Stadium.

This story was originally published June 8, 2017 at 3:57 PM with the headline "Louisville’s Brendan McKay named Baseball America’s national player of the year."