Feb. 15, 2017
Juniors Jeren Kendall and Kyle Wright have been placed on the preseason watch list for the Golden Spikes Award, given annually to the nation’s top amateur baseball player.
Kendall and Wright enter their third season at Vanderbilt as two of the highest regarded players in the country after posting big sophomore seasons and starring for the Collegiate National Team last summer. Kendall led the Commodores with a .332 batting average, 16 doubles, 63 runs, 59 RBIs and matching the school record with eight triples. He added nine home runs and stole a team-best 28 bases on his way to earning third team All-American.
Wright was spectacular in 2016, going 8-4 with a 3.09 ERA in 16 starts. He was even better in his 10 games in league play, going 5-3 with a 1.76 ERA to earn second team All-SEC honors. Wright is one of eight players on the 55-man list to have earned recognition from the award having been named to last year’s preseason watch list.
David Price is the only Commodore to win the Golden Spikes Award, taking home the trophy in 2007. The Commodores have twice had two finalists, once in 2007 with Price and Pedro Alvarez and in 2015 with Carson Fulmer and Dansby Swanson. Tyler Beede was a finalist in 2013.
Vanderbilt opens the 2017 season on Thursday night in San Diego at 8 p.m. CT.