Eric Hamilton of the nationally-ranked Oswego State baseball team earned All-America honors from both ABCA/Rawlings and D3baseball.com on Thursday. It is the second-straight year Hamilton has appeared on those entities' All-America squads, collecting second team accolades from both in 2017.
Hamilton – the back-to-back SUNYAC Player of the Year – has led the Lakers to their first-ever appearance in the NCAA Division III College World Series behind his .434 batting average, which ranks 17th in all of DIII. The senior sits at 69 hits this season, tying the program's single-season record that he set a year ago. Of those 69 hits, 20 are doubles, good for sixth-most in the country.
These honors for Hamilton come on the heels of being named the New York Region's Player of the Year by D3baseball.com and Most Valuable Player at the Syracuse Regional. In the title game of the Syracuse Regional, the third baseman went 5-for-5 with two doubles and two RBI to help Oswego subdue perennial power University of Southern Maine and punch its ticket to the College World Series.
Hamilton was recognized by the ABCA on Thursday at the opening ceremony of the College World Series. He joined four other All-Americans from the eight teams on Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium in Appleton, Wisc.
The top-seeded Lakers and their captain will begin the double-elimination championship tournament at 1:15 p.m. (CDT) on Friday against No. 8 Roanoke College.
