By Tyson Stone
InsidePitching.com

InsidePitching.com has announced its first annual region pitcher of the year awards.  Winners were chosen by a combination of three voting groups.  Points were awarded for first, second and third place via our senior staff, contributing writing staff, and an online vote.  Voting was not cumulative; rather, nominees were awarded points for each voting group.  Regardless of how many votes a nominee received from a particular voting panel, they were only awarded a certain amount of points for finishing in first, second or third.  With this, we had several regions that came down to just a few voting points.

In the West, San Diego left hander Brian Matusz won comfortably over Arizona’s Preston Guilmet and UCR right hander James Simmons.  Simmons who won the online vote, finished third with both our senior staff and writers staff.  Guilmet received the most first place votes from our writers panel, but finished last in the online voting.  Matusz, with a second place finish from online voting and strong support from our senior staff brought home the first award of our five regions.

In the Midwest, it was a two man race between Creighton’s Pat Venditte and TCU right hander Sam Demel.  Venditte edged Demel receiving strong support from both our senior staff and writer’s panel, while Demel won the online vote in a landslide.

The Great Lakes region was the best of the five races for region pitcher of the year.  By virtue of the online vote, UIC closer David Cales made a strong push, but was edged by Central Michigan ace Josh Collmenter.  Both pitchers were highly touted by both our senior staff and writer’s panel, as Ohio State’s Cory Luebke finished a distant third.

During the nomination process, the Southeast region appeared to be the most difficult to decide as we had to have four nominees rather than three.  All four candidates had outstanding seasons and any one of them could have won the award.  After the voting came in it was clear who stood out the most.  Vanderbilt lefty David Price won in a landslide as his margin of victory was the biggest of the five regions.

Finally, the Northeast was also a one man race as LeMoyne closer Ryan Woods ran away with the writer’s panel vote.  He received all but two first place votes from the writers.  This marked the highest total of first place votes awarded by the panel.

Region Pitcher of the Year Voting

West Region
Brian Matusz, San Diego (62)
Preston Guilmet, Arizona (54)
James Simmons, UCR (52)

Midwest Region
Pat Venditte, Creighton (67)
Sam Demel, TCU (61)
Chance Chapman, Oral Roberts (40)

Great Lakes Region
Josh Collmenter, Central Michigan (64)
David Cales, Illinois-Chicago (63)
Cory Luebke, Ohio State (41)

Southeast Region
David Price, Vanderbilt (75)
Adam Mills, Charlotte (53)
Jacob Thompson, Virginia (26)
Bryan Henry, Florida State (14)

Northeast Region
Ryan Woods, LeMoyne (67)
Todd Roth, Penn (52)
Ryan Buch, Monmouth (49)



West Region Pitcher of the Year
Brian Matusz, SO, LHP
San Diego
The Cave Creek, AZ native was named to Team USA earlier this season.  He has broken the Torero’s single-season strikeout record (currently at 152) and has earned 10 victories as San Diego is currently ranked as high as fifth in the country.


Stats
111 IP, 84 H, 37 R, 30 ER, 33 BB, 152 K, .206 Opp Avg.,  2.43 ERA, 10-2 W-L, 0 SV

Midwest Region Pitcher of the Year
Pat Venditte, JR, LHP/RHP
Creighton
InsidePitching.com Midwest Performance of the Week (Week of February 26)
Venditte, an Omaha native, has dominated hitters as a left-handed pitcher and as a right-handed pitcher all season long.  The junior Bluejay is averaging over a strikeout per inning and a .191 opposing batting average.

Stats
76.1 IP, 50 H, 17 R, 17 ER, 20 BB, 77 K, .191 Opp. Avg., 2.00 ERA, 7-2 W-L, 4 SV

Great Lakes Region Pitcher of the Year
Josh Collmenter, JR, RHP
Central Michigan
3-time InsidePitching.com Great Lakes Performance of the Week (Weeks of April 2, April 23 & April 30)
The 6’4”, 235 lb. right-hander has been mowing down opposing hitters with 112 strikeouts, a .188 opposing batting average and a 1.49 ERA.

Stats
108.2 IP, 73 H, 20 R, 18 ER, 25 BB, 112 K, .188 Opp. Avg., 1.49 ERA, 9-3 W-L, 0 SV

Southeast Region Pitcher of the Year
David Price, JR, LHP
Vanderbilt
2-Time Southeast Performance of the Week (Week of March 5, & May 15)
The junior left-hander has helped the Commodores to their first-ever regular season SEC Championship.  The Tennessee native has won 10 games, posted a strikeout-to-walk ratio that is better than 5:1 and has kept opposing hitters to a .204 batting average.

Stats
114 IP, 84 H, 39 R, 35 ER, 29 BB, 164 K, .204 Opp. Avg., 2.76 ERA, 10-0 W-L, 0 SV

Northeast Region Pitcher of the Year
Ryan Woods, SR, RHP
LeMoyne
Woods, a native of Jacksonville, Florida has helped the Dolphins into position to win the MAAC title.  Woods has successfully saved 14 games and won five during  his senior season.  With his nearly invisible 1.10 ERA and .163 opposing batting average to match, Woods has etched his name into the LeMoyne record books.

Stats
49 IP, 28 H, 11 R, 6 ER, 10 BB, 39 K, .163 Opp. Avg., 1.10 ERA, 5-1 W-L, 14 SV