OSU Lands Two On All-America Third Team

Oklahoma State had a pair of players named All-Americans on Tuesday as senior Donnie Walton and sophomore Thomas Hatch were tabbed by Baseball America to the 2016 All-America Third Team.

It marks the second All-America honor for Hatch this season as he was previously earned third-team accolades fromCollegiate Baseball. OSU has now earned All-American honors 118 times in program history.
 
The 2016 Big 12 Conference Pitcher of the Year, Hatch emerged as the ace of the Cowboys' pitching staff as a sophomore this season. The right-hander is 7-2 with a 2.16 ERA in 16 starts, and he leads the Big 12 in ERA, innings pitched (112.1) and complete games (three).
 
Hatch has racked up 102 strikeouts in 2016, becoming only the 13th pitcher in OSU history to record 100 strikeouts in a season and the first since Andrew Heaney had 140 in 2012. The Cowboys have now had a pitcher reach 100 strikeouts in a season 16 times (three players have done it twice).
 
Each of Hatch's complete games was a shutout as he blanked three-straight opponents – TCU, Texas and Prairie View A&M – to become just the 10th pitcher in Big 12 history to record three shutouts in a season. He went 38.2 consecutive innings without allowing an earned run from April 8-May 13 and also recorded a streak of 33-straight scoreless frames during that span.
 
Hatch has worked six or more innings in 13 of his 16 starts, and of the 94 hits he's allowed this season, only nine have gone for extra bases.
 
In his final season in an OSU uniform, Walton has helped lead the Cowboys into its second NCAA Super Regional in the last two years. The switch-hitting shortstop has played in all 59 games and is hitting .350 with 14 doubles, three home runs and a team-high 43 RBIs.
 
Walton also leads the Cowboys with a .446 on-base percentage and is second on the ballclub with 13 stolen bases.
 
Walton's standout senior season has seen him move into the top 10 on OSU's career list in games played, at-bats, hits and sacrifice flies, and he is the Cowboys' all-time leader in sacrifice bunts.
 
The only OSU player to earn All-Big 12 First-Team honors three times in a career (2014-16), today's honor marks the first time Walton has been named an All-American.