IRVING, Texas – Four Knights received year-end honors from the American Athletic Conference as Ben McCabe and Andrew Sundean were selected to the All-Conference First Team and Cameron Leiter and Drew Faurot each received unanimous selections to the Freshman All-Conference Team, the league announced Monday.
McCabe earns first team honors in his final season with the Knights. McCabe started each of UCF's 56 games, with more than 40 starts behind the dish. In a historic season, he became the all-time home run leader at UCF, belting 18 this season for a total of 48 in his career. His .363 batting average leads the team and he finished his season in the top three in The American in 10 offensive categories, including leading the league in runs scored (62), hits (78), home runs (18), total bases (146) and hit by pitch (19). McCabe was named to D1 Baseball's Top 50 Catchers list three times, ranked in the preseason list at No. 21 and reaching up to No. 5. He also was named to the Buster Posey Award midseason watch list.
Sundean earned a first team nod after improving on his impressive freshman season. Sundean was hitting He is tied for second on the Knights in home runs with 16 and tallied 8 doubles. He received four weekly honors from The American, earning Player of the Week once and appearing on the weekly honor roll three times. This All-Conference honor marks his second consecutive AAC season recognition as he was named to the Second Team All-Conference in 2022 as a freshman.
Leiter was one of two Knights to earn a Freshman All-Conference recognition by unanimous selection. Leiter finished the regular season with an impressive 71 strikeouts in 49.2 innings of work. In two of his final three starts, Leiter reached his personal best in single-game strikeouts with 11 at Tulane and 11 the following week at Cincinnati. His performance at Cincinnati was also highlighted by four perfect innings to start the game. In his 14 appearances, 13 of them starts, Leiter posted a 5.62 ERA and earned 3 wins.
Faurot received a unanimous selection to the Freshman All-Conference Team after finishing the regular season with a .269 batting average and leading the team with 52 RBI. Faurot leads all newcomers with 54 starts and tallied 197 at bats through his freshman regular season. Faurot hit a program-record 15 home runs by a freshman, tying the record set by Rylan Thomas in 2017 with the Knights' 100th homer of the season, and breaking it at the final regular season game in front of a home crowd.
The complete 2023 awards as announced by the American Athletic Conference:
Player of the Year
Brock Rodden, Jr., 2B, Wichita State
Pitcher of the Year
Dalton Fowler, Sr., Memphis
Newcomer Position Player of the Year
Justin Murray, Jr., 1B, Houston
Newcomer Pitcher of the Year
Grant Adler, Jr., Wichita State
Defensive Player of the Year
Eric Snow, SS, South Florida
Coach of the Year
Loren Hibbs, Wichita State
First-Team All-Conference
P – Trey Yesavage, So., East Carolina*
P – Dalton Fowler, Sr., Memphis*
P – Grant Adler, Jr., Wichita State
P – Clark Candiotti, Jr., Wichita State
RP – Dalton Kendrick, Jr., Memphis
C – Ben McCabe, R-Sr., UCF
1B – Justin Murray, Jr., Houston
2B – Brock Rodden, Jr., Wichita State*
SS – Eric Snow, Fr., South Florida*
3B – Zach Arnold, Jr., Houston
OF – Carter Cunningham, Jr., East Carolina
OF – Bobby Boser, So., South Florida
OF – Drew Brutcher, Jr., South Florida
OF – Chuck Ingram, Jr., Wichita State
DH – Andrew Sundean, So., UCF
DH – Jacob Jenkins-Cowart, So., East Carolina
UTL – Payton Tolle, So., Wichita State
Second-Team All-Conference
P – Josh Grosz, Jr., East Carolina
P – Carter Spivey, Sr., East Carolina
P – Jack Cebert, So., South Florida
P – Ricky Castro, Gr., Tulane
RP – Jace Miner, So., Wichita State
C – Justin Wilcoxen, Jr., East Carolina
1B – Josh Moylan, Jr., East Carolina
2B – Jacob Starling, Jr., East Carolina
SS – Joey Berini, Jr., East Carolina
3B – Logan Kohler, Jr., Memphis
OF – Luke Nowak, So., East Carolina
OF – Teo Banks, So., Tulane
OF – Kyte McDonald, Jr., Wichita State
UTL – Kerrington Cross, R-So., Cincinnati
Freshman All-Conference
Drew Faurot, INF, UCF*
Cameron Leiter, P, UCF*
Chase Horst, P, Cincinnati
Griffin Hugus, P/UTL, Cincinnati
Zach Root, P, East Carolina*
Luke Ellis, P, Memphis
JR Jimerson, OF, Memphis
Rafael Betancourt, P, South Florida
Eric Snow, SS, South Florida*
Jack Little, INF, Wichita State
Nate Snead, P, Wichita State
* - unanimous selection