Wise and Duke Tabbed All-Americans

June 10, 2009

NORMAN, Okla. -- Senior J.T. Wise was named a first team All-American by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association on Wednesday. The last first team All-American at OU was Jeff Bajenaru in 2000.

Sophomore Ryan Duke was also honored by the NCBWA and was tabbed a third team member.

The selections come after the Sooners' enjoyed a 43-20 record this season and a No. 7 national seed in the NCAA Tournament. The last time OU had two All-Americans in the same season was in 1998 (Casey Bookout, Geoff Geary and Derek Wathan).

Wise is also a finalist for the Johnny Bench Award, given to the nation's top catcher. The 2009 Big 12 Player of the Year was also named a second team All-American by Collegiate Baseball.

Drafted in the fifth round of the 2009 MLB Draft on Wednesday by the Los Angeles Dodgers, Wise led the Sooners with a .359 batting average and 17 homers. He was tied for the team lead in RBIs and recorded a .996 fielding percentage behind the plate while throwing out 30 potential base stealers.

Duke led the Big 12 with 16 saves and ranked sixth in the nation. The save total is the second highest in school history behind Jeff Bajenaru's 20 recorded in 2000. In addition, the 16 saves ranks third all-time in a career at Oklahoma.

Duke was successful in 16 of 18 save attempts and one of his blown saves was turned into a victory at Washington State. He was named an All-Big 12 second team selection as 10 of his conversions came in conference play. Overall, Duke led OU with 26 appearances and struck out 43 batters and limited them to a .212 average in 36 1/3 innings.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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