May 24, 2016
2016AwardsRelease 
After leading his team to their first Conference USA regular season championship, Florida Atlantic junior SS CJ Chatham was named 2016 Conference USA Player of the Year while Rice junior RHP Jon Duplantier, the league's leader in wins and strikeouts, earned C-USA Pitcher of the Year honors, as the league's baseball awards were announced on Tuesday in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, site of the 2016 Conference USA Baseball Championship presented by Buffalo Wild Wings.
Rice SS Ford Proctor was named C-USA Freshman of the Year, while Marshall junior 1B Tommy Lane gained Newcomer of the Year recognition and Chatham also won the league's inaugural Defensive Player of the Year award. Marshall head coach Jeff Waggoner was named the Keith LeClair Coach of the Year, while Thundering Herd Hitting Coach Tim Donnelly earned the Assistant Coach of the Year honor.
Chatham, the preseason Conference USA Player of the Year, has started every game at shortstop for the No. 17-ranked and top-seeded Owls. He leads FAU with .373 average, 47 runs scored, 17 doubles, four triples, a .439 on-base percentage and a .578 slugging percentage. Chatham ranks second on the club with 45 RBI and has hit seven homers. The Fort Lauderdale, Florida native is 23rd nationally in hits (84) and 33rd in Division I in total bases (130). He has 25 multi-hit games (10 with 3 or more) and 13 multi-RBI games. Chatham's defensive prowess helped the Owls post the top fielding percentage in Conference USA.
Duplantier has reached double-digit strikeouts in six of his 13 starts this season, posting nine K's on two other occasions, to rank among the national leaders with 126 batters struck out. He is tied with sophomore teammate Glenn Otto for the league lead in opponents batting average at .195 and did not yield a home run until his final regular season start.
Proctor has produced multiple double-digit hitting streaks this season and leads Rice with a .348 batting average. He hit his first career home run in the season finale, is tied for the team lead with 13 doubles and he has a team-best 30 RBI. Proctor was the only freshman to earn All-Conference honors.
Lane made a huge impact in his first season with the Thundering Herd, leading Conference USA in home runs with 13 and topping Marshall in RBI with 48. He drew 35 walks to give him a .411 on-base percentage to go along with his .309 batting average. Lane had seven homers and 28 RBI in conference games.
Waggoner earned his first Conference USA Coach of the Year award after leading Marshall to its highest win totals in school history for conference games (21) and all games (32) in school history. Picked to finish 12th in the preseason poll, the Herd finished in second place, just a half game out of first. He is Marshall's first conference Coach of the Year since Jack Cook in 1989 (Southern Conference).
As the Marshall hitting coach, Donnelly directed one of the most productive batting lineups in the conference to earn the Assistant Coach of the Year award. The Herd batted .284 as a team, roped 89 doubles and hit 56 home runs to place second in Conference USA.
Southern Miss had the most first-team All-Conference selections with five and the most total selections with six. Marshall had three first team picks, while Rice and WKU were the only other schools with multiple first team choices, each producing two. Florida Atlantic and Rice's four total all-conference choices were second only to Southern Miss with six. Six of the league's teams had at least one representative on the first team unit, while nine had second-team selections. Florida Atlantic, Rice and Southern Miss and UTSA were the only schools with multiple selections to the All-Freshman team, each placing two on a unit that which included at least one player from eight 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.
2016 CONFERENCE USA BASEBALL AWARDS
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
CJ Chatham, Jr., SS, Florida Atlantic
PITCHER OF THE YEAR
Jon Duplantier, Jr., RHP, Rice
FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR
Ford Proctor, Fr., SS, Rice
NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR
Tommy Lane, Jr., 1B, Marshall
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR
CJ Chatham, Jr., SS, Florida Atlantic
KEITH LECLAIR COACH OF THE YEAR
Jeff Waggoner, Marshall
ASSISTANT COACH OF THE YEAR
Tim Donnelly, Marshall
FIRST TEAM ALL-CONFERENCE
IF CJ Chatham, Jr., Florida Atlantic
IF Danny Hudzina, Sr., WKU
IF Tommy Lane, Jr., Marshall
IF Tim Lynch, Sr., Southern Miss
OF Dylan Burdeaux, Jr., Southern Miss
OF Jake Sandlin, Sr., Southern Miss
OF DJ Gee, Sr., Marshall
C Chuckie Robinson, Jr., Southern Miss
DH/UT Kaleb Duckworth, So., WKU
SP Chase Boster, Sr., Marshall
SP Jon Duplantier, Jr., Rice
SP Kirk McCarty, Sr., Southern Miss
SP Casey Sutton, Jr., Louisiana Tech
RP Glenn Otto, So., Rice
SECOND TEAM ALL-CONFERENCE
IF Riley Delgado, Jr., Middle Tennessee
IF Brett Netzer, So., Charlotte
IF Logan Sherer, Jr., Charlotte
IF Ford Proctor, Fr., Rice
OF Corey Bird, Jr., Marshall
OF Connor Myers, Sr., Old Dominion
OF T.J. Nichting, Jr., Charlotte
C Zack Soria, Jr., FIU
DH/UT Jonathan Washam, Jr., Louisiana Tech
SP Cord Cockrell, Sr., Southern Miss
SP Brandon Rhodes, Sr., Florida Atlantic
SP Ricardo Salinas, So., Rice
SP Sam Sinnen, Jr., Old Dominion
SP Marc Stewart, So., Florida Atlantic
RP Cameron Ragsdale, Jr., Florida Atlantic
ALL-FRESHMAN TEAM
IF Bryan Arias, UTSA
SS Ford Proctor, Rice
C Tyler Frank, Florida Atlantic
OF Blake Benefield, Middle Tennessee
OF Reece Hampton, Charlotte
OF Brewer Hicklen, UAB
DH Dominic DiCaprio, Rice
DH Hunter Slater, Southern Miss
LHP Nick Swan, Florida Atlantic
LHP Joshua Shapiro, Marshall
RHP Nick Sandlin, Southern Miss