College baseball: FGCU's Nick Rivera named Atlantic Sun Player of the Year

Florida Gulf Coast University's Nick Rivera has been named the Atlantic Sun Baseball Player of the Year, and teammate Richie Garcia was selected ASUN Freshman of the Year.

Rivera, a Bishop Verot High School graduate, was joined on the all-conference first team by shortstop Julio Gonzalez and pitcher Kutter Crawford. Freshmen Alex Brait and Marc Coffers, a Barron Collier High School graduate, joined Garcia on the All-Freshman Team.

Senior Corey Fehribach also made the All-Academic Team.

"For Nick to go through what he's gone through and still accomplish all that he has is remarkable," FGCU coach Dave Tollett said. "He couldn't be more deserving of the Player of the Year award. For the other guys, to do what they did, all in their first years at the Division I level, it doesn't happen very often. Also, Corey epitomizes what it means to be a student-athlete, and it's no surprise to see him on the all-academic team. These individual awards are great and well deserved, but if you ask each of these guys, I think they have their minds set on a bigger goal."

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Rivera hit .400 in conference games with 10 homers and 29 RBIs.  He joins Jake Noll from last year and Jason Peacock from 2008 as ASUN Players of the Year in FGCU history. Overall, Rivera led the conference with 16 homers and 54 RBIs, plus a .605 slugging percentage.

Garcia led ASUN freshmen in homers (six), RBIs (32) and slugging percentage (.439). Crawford, a junior, went 6-1 with a 1.76 ERA.

Gonzalez led FGCU with a .342 batting average, which is sixth in the ASUN. He also had a .948 fielding percentage and a team-high 161 infield assists and 78 putouts.

Coffers hit .259 with four homers and 17 RBIs in 39 games. Brait hit .293 with a pair of homers and 11 RBIs. Fehribach had a 3.29 grade-point average in communications.

FGCU baseball brings Barron Collier star Marc Coffers into fold

Stetson's Logan Gilbert was named Pitcher of the Year, and Michael Gigliotti of Lipscomb and Grant Williams of Kennesaw State shared Defensive Player of the Year. Cody Kramer of NJIT was Scholar-Athlete of the Year, and Chris Hayes of Jacksonville was picked Coach of the Year.