University of Houston Athletics
Wagner Named First-Team All-American Reliever
5/30/2003 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 30, 2003
HOUSTON - University of Houston reliever Ryan Wagner was honored Friday as a First-Team All-American by Collegiate Baseball magazine.
This season, the Yoakum, Texas, native has thrown to a UH single-season record 13 saves and become the Cougars career saves leader with 14 in only two full seasons. In addition, he has racked up an amazing 130 strikeouts - the third-highest total in UH single-season history -- in only 69.2 innings of work, an average of 16.8 strikeouts per nine innings.
If he can continue that pace, Wagner will set a new NCAA Division I record, originally set by Murray State's George Dugan in 1964. It marked the second consecutive year that the Cougars boasted of a First-Team All-American. In 2002, junior starter Brad Sullivan was a consensus First-Team All-American, while reliever/shortstop Jesse Crain was a First-Team selection by Baseball America magazine.
This season, Wagner has joined Sullivan as the first Cougar teammates to each throw more than 100 strikeouts in the season. The Cougar duo has also established itself as the greatest pitching combo in school history with a combined 282 strikeouts between them, 60 more than the then-record-setting mark they set in 2002.
Wagner and his Cougar teammates return to action at 10 a.m., Saturday, in an elimination game at the NCAA Regional at College Station. They will face the loser of the Texas A&M-Oral Roberts game, which was played Friday night.
