ORLANDO (UCFKnights.com) – Following outstanding first seasons at UCF, Rylan Thomas and Joe Sheridan received Louisville Slugger Freshman All-America honors from Collegiate Baseball Newspaper on Wednesday.
Thomas and Sheridan are the 12th and 13th freshmen to earn the accolades at UCF and it marks just the fourth time in program history that multiple Knights garnered Freshman All-American honors in the same season.
With 14 home runs in 2017, Thomas set a new UCF record for round trippers by a freshman and hit the most homers for any Knight since 2012. The Winter Garden, Fla., native led UCF with 53 runs batted in, totaled 11 doubles and scored 46 runs while batting .303 for the season.
Thomas was named the American Athletic Conference Rookie Position Player of the Year, and earned Second Team All-Conference honors. His 14 home runs are currently tied for the second most by any freshman in the nation for 2017.
Sheridan also set a UCF freshman record in 2017, winning 10 games on the mound in his first season in Black and Gold. The left-hander finished the year 10-4 with a 3.25 ERA, 64 strikeouts and just 24 walks in 72.0 innings pitched.
The Oviedo, Fla., native's 10 victories are tied for the most in the nation among freshmen and rank 10th overall. During American Athletic Conference play, Sheridan went 6-2 with a 3.18 ERA and 44 strikeouts in 45.1 innings of work.
The Knights just wrapped up an extremely successful first season under head coach Greg Lovelady with their first NCAA Regional berth since 2012. UCF finished the year 40-22 and won The American regular season championship with a league mark of 15-9.
UCF's Freshman All-Americans
Jason Arnold, P – 1998
Matt Bowser, 1B – 1998
Dee Brown, OF – 2002
Clay Timpner, OF – 2002
Taylor Meier, RHP – 2004
Beau Taylor, C – 2009
Ryan Breen, C/DH – 2010
Joe Rogers, LHP – 2010
Chris Taladay, C/IF – 2010
Eric Skoglund, LHP – 2012
Zac Favre, RHP – 2013
Joe Sheridan, LHP – 2017
Rylan Thomas, 1B – 2017
