After leading his team a school-record 44 wins and an outright Conference USA regular season championship, Southern Miss senior 1B Dylan Burdeaux , the nation’s hits leader, was named 2017 C-USA Player of the Year. Louisiana Tech senior RHP Nate Harris, the league’s leader in wins and saves, earned C-USA Pitcher of the Year honors, as the league’s baseball awards were announced on Tuesday in Biloxi, Mississippi, site of The First, A National Banking Association, 2017 Conference USA Baseball Championship. 
 
Southern Miss OF Matt Wallner was named C-USA Freshman of the Year, while Old Dominion junior 2B Jared Young gained Newcomer of the Year recognition and Monarch teammate senior SS Zach Rutherford won the league’s Defensive Player of the Year award.  Southern Miss head coach Scott Berry was named the Keith LeClair Coach of the Year, while Golden Eagles Hitting Coach Chad Caillet earned the Assistant Coach of the Year honor.
 
Burdeaux leads Division I in hits with 97 and tops Conference USA in RBI (66), total bases (152) and stolen bases (19).  His 22 doubles and 61 runs scored each rank second in C-USA.  Burdeaux batted .403 in league play and is hitting .372 overall, while entering the C-USA Championship on an 11-game hitting streak, with base knocks in 31 of his last 33 outings.  A semifinalist for the Dick Howser Trophy, he ranks in the Southern Miss all-time top 10 in seven different categories.
 
Harris has the rare distinction of being tied for the conference lead in victories (nine) and saves (eight) after beginning the season as the Bulldogs closer before moving into the starting rotation at the beginning of conference play.  He also leads C-USA with a 1.75 ERA and is second in strikeouts with 90, while walking just 10 batters in 87.1 innings pitched.  A three-time C-USA Pitcher of the Week honoree, Harris has thrown three complete-games and two complete-game shutouts.
 
Wallner enjoys a .340 batting average and ranks second in the conference with 17 home runs and 55 RBI.  His home run total is the most ever by a Southern Miss freshman and he ranks second in C-USA in slugging percentage (.680) and on-base percentage (.466). Wallner also has registered a 2-0 pitching record with a 1.84 ERA and three saves in eight relief appearances.  The only freshman to earn All-Conference honors, he recently became just the second player in Southern Miss history to receive an invitation to attend the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team training camp this summer.
 
Young batted .433 in conference games, the highest batting average in league play since 2011.  He is hitting .374 overall (third in C-USA) and leads Old Dominion in hits (80), runs scored (54) and home runs (7), while adding 17 doubles and 34 RBI.  A two-time C-USA Player of the Week, Young has 23 multiple-hit games, 11 multiple-RBI outings and set a school record with 17 hit by pitches.
 
Rutherford was named one of 13 semifinalists for the Brooks Wallace Award, given to the nation’s top shortstop.  He owns a .985 fielding percentage, leads C-USA in assists with 191 (30 more than any other player) and has committed just four errors.  Rutherford committed just three errors during conference play in 146 chances.
 
After leading Southern Miss to its fourth Conference USA regular season championship and setting a school regular season record with 44 victories, Berry earned his second Keith LeClair Coach of the Year honor.  The Golden Eagles 25-5 mark in conference play tied the league mark for the most wins in league play and Southern Miss set a record for most road victories in C-USA play, going 14-1.  The Golden Eagles are ranked in the top 15, are the top hitting team in C-USA and have the lowest earned run average.
 
As the Southern Miss hitting coach, Caillet directed the most productive batting lineup in the conference to earn the Assistant Coach of the Year award.  The Golden Eagles have 22 double-digit scoring games this season, feature seven different players with at least 75 at-bats that are batting .312 or better and all 14 position players with an at-bat this season have homered for the club.
 
Southern Miss had the most first-team All-Conference selections with five and the most total selections with seven.  Louisiana Tech and Old Dominion each had three first team picks, while Charlotte produced two.  Louisiana Tech’s five total all-conference choices were second only to Southern Miss, while Charlotte ranked third with four total picks.  Seven of the league’s teams had at least one representative on the first team unit, while 10 had second-team selections.  Old Dominion led the way on All-Freshman team with three choices, with Charlotte and FIU each placing two on a unit that included at least one player from seven schools.  Voting was done by a panel consisting of each head coach, each team’s media relations director and a media representative from each city.
 

2017 CONFERENCE USA BASEBALL AWARDS
 
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Dylan Burdeaux, Sr., 1B, Southern Miss
 
PITCHER OF THE YEAR
Nate Harris, Sr., RHP, Louisiana Tech
 
FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR
Matt Wallner, Fr., OF, Southern Miss
 
NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR
Jared Young, Jr., 2B, Old Dominion
 
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Zach Rutherford, Jr., SS, Old Dominion
 
KEITH LeCLAIR COACH OF THE YEAR
Scott Berry, Southern Miss
 
ASSISTANT COACH OF THE YEAR
Chad Caillet, Southern Miss