Delease Earns Collegiate Baseball Newspaper Freshman All-America Honors
The Blue Devils won the fifth NEC title in program-history and went 36-22.
Freshman Michael Delease of the Central Connecticut baseball team earned mention on the Collegiate Baseball Freshman All-America team. Delease and the Blue Devils won the program's fifth Northeast Conference championship in 2017 and qualified for the NCAA Tournament.
Delease, a right-hander from Sherman, CT, was named to the All-Northeast Conference Second Team in his rookie campaign. He finished the season with a 3.03 ERA and went 5-0. He tossed a complete game shutout, allowing just two hits, on April 22 in an 8-0 win over Bryant. He earned NEC Pitcher of the Week honors for that effort and was named Rookie of the Week on two occasions.
He is the first CCSU player to be named to earn Freshman All-America honors since Rob Hosgood and Tim D'Aquila earned Honorable Mention honors in 2001.
Central finished the season with a 36-22 mark and qualified for the NCAA Tournament, playing in the Fort Worth Regional. The Blue Devils also went 21-7 in NEC play en route to winning the program's fifth conference title under head coach Charlie Hickey. CCSU's 6-3 win over Sacred Heart in the title game was the 500th win of Hickey's career at Central.
