Mancuso and Venditte Named Third Team All-Americans by Collegiate Baseball
5/30/2007 8:00:00 AM | Baseball
TUCSON, Ariz. ? Creighton junior baseball players Ben Mancuso and Pat Venditte have been named to the third team Louisville Slugger NCAA Division I All-American squad, as announced by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper on Wednesday.
With the selections, the two star Bluejays pitchers become the 11th and 12th All-Americans in CU baseball recorded history and the fifth and sixth under head coach Ed Servais in the last four seasons. Others to have earned All-American honors under Servais include Steve Grasley, Tony Roth, Zach Daeges and current senior Scott Reese.
Mancuso, who recently was named the Missouri Valley Conference Pitcher of the Year, led all Bluejay starters this season with 10 wins and finished with a 2.28 ERA in 13 appearances. The left-hander becomes the first Bluejay starting pitcher to earn All-American honors since Grasley did it in 2004 and just the fourth in Jays history. This season, the Omaha native (Creighton Prep) became just the second junior in CU history to earn 10 wins in a season, as he finished the season ranked fourth in the MVC in ERA and was tied for second in wins, as he recorded seven scoreless outings.
The southpaw tossed two seven-inning complete games and had five games where he allowed four hits or less in an outing. His now .681 (15-7) career-winning percentage ranks ninth in CU-recorded history and his .833 (10-2) winning percentage this season ranks fourth in single-season history.
It has also been a historical season for Venditte, a first-team all-MVC reliever, who is 8-2 with four saves and leads the team with 88.1 innings pitched and 90 strikeouts. Another native of Omaha (Central), he ranks among the national leaders in appearances, ERA and batting average against. His 1.83 ERA ranks first in Bluejays' single-season recorded history, while his career 2.62 ERA is tops on the career list. With one appearance, he will tie the single-season school record for most appearances in a season, which is held by Reese (37).
Just recently, Venditte had a streak of 43.2 scoreless innings snapped in the Valley title tilt against Wichita State when he allowed a sixth-inning sacrifice fly. He garnered National Player of the Week honors for his two performances in the MVC Tournament, where he allowed a single run on six hits in 12 innings of work, recording 13 strikeouts.
Venditte has two games this season with 10 punch outs and has a strikeout per nine innings ratio of 9.17. The ambidextrous one has had 28 appearances thus far where he has pitched with both arms, as he recorded strikeouts with both arms in nine of those appearances.
Venditte joins his teammate, Reese (2005), as the only relief pitchers in CU history to ever earn All-American stature.
Venditte and Mancuso were part of three selected teams made up of 73 total players and 27 individual pitchers. The staff of Collegiate Baseball did all voting.
These two All-Americans will look to continue to add to their historical seasons this weekend, as they try to help the Bluejays inch closer to a berth in the College World Series. The Jays will do battle with Oklahoma State on Friday in the Fayetteville, Ark. Regional, as first pitch is set for 2:30 p.m. The game can be heard on KOZN 1620 AM and seen nationally on CSTV.
