WACO, TX — The honors keep rolling in for Baylor baseball senior pitcher Kyle Hill and Davis Wendzel this week. Hill was named a First Team All-American by D1Baseball.com and National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) and a third team selection by Perfect Game USA, while Wendzel was named a Third Team All-American selection by D1Baseball.com and an honorable mention selection by Perfect Game USA.
The Corpus Christi, native is also the first Baylor pitcher to earn first team honors since Jason Jennings in 1999. Hill is the first Bear to ever earn D1Baseball.com and Perfect Game All-America honors and he is the first to earn NCBWA honors since Troy Montemayor in 2017. Hill has now been recognized by five national publications as an All-American, a first team selection by four of those.
For the third-straight year Baylor pitching coach Jon Strauss has led one of his pitchers to All-America honors, with closer Troy Montemayor earning the second team honors in 2017 and starter Cody Bradford as a third team selection in 2018.
Hill, the first Bear to be named a finalist for the NCBWA Stopper of the Year Award, was outstanding for the Bears on the mound in his final season, as he did not allow a run (0.00 ERA) in 23 appearances, 29.1 innings of work on the season, finishing with a 6-0 record and seven saves. The 32-game, 29.1 innings scoreless streak is the longest in program history for one season and overall, he boasts a 32.2 scoreless inning streak over 24 games dating back to the 2018 season. He cemented his spot in the Baylor record book with 139 career strikeouts in relief to sit fourth on the career list and is third on BU’s all-time appearances leaderboard (93 games) and tied for fifth on the all-time relief appearances chart (82). His 0.00 ERA leads the Big 12 and his six wins on the year are the most by a reliever nationally that does not have at least one start on the year. His first team selections by D1Baseball.com and NCBWA and his third team selection by Perfect Game USA join his first team All-America honors from Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball.
Joining Hill as a first-time All-America selection is third baseman Davis Wendzel, the 2019 Co-Big 12 Player of the Year. Wendzel led the Conference during the regular season with a .377 batting average (63-of-167) and a .488 on-base percentage, while his slugging percentage of .623 ranked third in the league. The San Clemente, Calif., native's .404 batting average (23-of-57) in conference-only action also led the league. He finished his junior campaign batting .367 with an OPS of 1.094. He finished tied for second on the team with 42 RBIs and 19 doubles. His eight home runs were third-most on the team, while his slugging percentage of .610 led the team. Wendzel also showed off his wheels this season, stealing a career-best 11 bases (11-of-14 attempts). He also was even more impressive on the field, registering just two errors in 108 chances. He has now been named an All-American by four different publications.
The honors give Baylor All-Americans in three-straight seasons for the first time since 1999-2001.
