Baylor baseball senior closer Troy Montemayor was named to the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) 2018 Stopper of the Year Preseason Watch List, the organization announced Monday. The 14th annual award honors the top relief pitcher in NCAA Division I baseball.
After being named an NCBWA third-team preseason All-American last week, Montemayor earned another honor from the association that he’s familiar with. Last season he was also named to the list to mark the first Baylor player to be on the preseason list since Brooks Pinckard in 2011. Montemayor was a midseason addition to the watch list in 2016 season.
One of 52 players and one of three from the Big 12 Conference on the list, the right-handed San Antonio native is the first BU player to be a preseason All-American in two straight seasons since Mark McCormick in 2004 and 2005. In 2018, he appeared in career-high 25 games in relief, tallying a career-high three wins with a 2.10 ERA in 25.2 innings with nine walks and 29 strikeouts. His 12 saves ranked third in the Big 12 and 25th in the country. He currently ranks second all-time at Baylor in career saves (26), 14th in lowest ERA (3.12) and tied for 17th in most appearances (70), and is the second BU player to have two 10-save seasons (Zane Carlson 2000 (15), 2003 (11)).
