Bowling Green State University Athletics
Shay Named One Of Top Shortstops In The Country
January 20, 2009 | Baseball
Jan. 20, 2009
BOWLING GREEN, OHIO - Bowling Green State University senior shortstop Ryan Shay was picked as one of the top seven players at his position in the country by the Ping!Baseball web site in their annual preseason list of the top collegiate players.
Shay was in the "for your consideration" category for shortstops along with Mike Olt from Connecticut.
Shay is coming off a huge season in which he led the Mid-American Conference in hitting with a .412 average while he also ranked among the league leaders in hits (1st, 1.67 per game, 87), runs scored (10th, 1.02 per game, 53), doubles (5th, .37 per game, 19), total bases (10th, 2.33 per game, 121) and on-base percentage (2nd, .481). His batting average was 22nd in the nation last season.
Shay, a Garden City, Mich. native, was also part of a double-play combination that turned an MAC-best 59 twin killings while BG's average of 1.13 double-plays per game was tied for the 14th-best figure in the country.
The first-team All-Mideast and All-MAC selection last season led the Falcons to the MAC regular-season and East Division titles qualifying for the league tournament. The Falcons won 15 of their last 19 games to finish with a 32-20 record.
Shay's batting average and hit total last season established school records while his 19 doubles equalled the school mark.
Grant Green from USC was picked as the top shortstop in the country by the web site. The second-team shortstops were Ryan Jackson from the University of Miami and Rick Hague from Rice while Justin Toule from Iowa and Georgia Tech's Derek Dietrich were third-team selections.
