Elon Baseball’s Ogren, Brnovich Named to National Watch Lists

LUBBOCK, Texas – A pair of Elon University baseball players have been named to College Baseball Foundation watch lists for national honors. Junior Ryne Ogren has been placed on the watch list for the Brooks Wallace Award, which is presented to the nation’s top shortstop, while sophomore Kyle Brnovich has been selected to the watch list for the Pitcher of the Year Award.

Brooks Wallace Award Watch List | Pitcher of the Year Award Watch List

Ogren, who hails from Devon, Pa., currently leads Elon with a .360 batting average (50-for-139), nine doubles and 36 RBI. He has also scored 25 runs and hit three home runs. Ogren has started all 38 games for the maroon and gold this season and, in fact, has made 127 consecutive starts. He earned the first CAA Player of the Week honor of his career earlier this season after hitting .421 with nine RBI in five games in late February. Ogren currently rates 47th in the nation in toughest to strike out, averaging just one K every 11.6 at bats. He also ranks 23rd nationally with five sacrifice flies.

Brnovich, who is from Milton, Ga., is the nation’s leader with 97 strikeouts this year. That is a number that rates in a tie for the eighth-most strikeouts in a season in program history. Brnovich is currently 4-1 with a 1.48 ERA and has held opponents to a .160 batting average. He has struck out 10 or more hitters in six of his nine starts, including a season-high 14 over 7.1 innings in a victory over #30 College of Charleston that helped to earn him CAA co-Pitcher of the Week and a spot on Collegiate Baseball’s National Players of the Week. Brnovich, who is also on the watch list for the Golden Spikes Award, currently ranks 10th in program history with 200 career strikeouts.

The Brooks Wallace Award, sponsored by Mizuno, honors the nation’s top shortstop and will be presented this summer by the College Baseball Foundation. It is named for former Texas Tech shortstop Brooks Wallace, who played for the Red Raiders from 1977 to 1980. Wallace died of leukemia at the age of 27. There are 53 players on the list.

The Pitcher of the Year Award highlights 78 of the top arms in the country that includes both perennial powers and up-and-coming teams. The award, sponsored by Diamond, will be presented later this summer by the College Baseball Foundation.

Ogren and Brnovich will lead Elon back into action on Friday, April 20, as the Phoenix hosts Hartford for game one of a three-game series at Latham Park.