3 Arizona baseball players named to All-America teams

Courtesy Arizona Athletics

The early returns from the Arizona Wildcats’ 2020 season indicated that it was going to be a good one, both for the team and individuals.

When the coronavirus pandemic shut everything down in mid-March it ended any hope of the UA getting back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2017, though several college baseball sites included the Wildcats in their projected tourney fields.

One of those outlets also released All-America teams for the abbreviated 2020 campaign, and three Arizona players made the cut.

Sophomore catcher Austin Wells was named a Second Team All-American by Collegiate Baseball, while outfielder Mac Bingham and pitcher Chandler Murphy were named to their Freshman All-America squad.

Wells hit .375 with two home runs and 14 RBI in 15 games, posting a .589 slugging percentage and 1.116 OPS. The Pac-12 Freshman of the Year is widely regarded as one of the top pro prospects in college baseball, and as a draft-eligible sophomore is expected to be taken early in next week’s 2020 MLB Draft.

Bingham hit .361 in 15 games for Arizona, adding a homer and seven RBI along with a .478 on-base percentage. Murphy, a right-hander, went 2-0 with a team-best 2.70 ERA with 19 strikeouts in 16.2 innings. He went 10.2 scoreless innings to open his career, the first UA true freshman to do that in at least 23 years.

Arizona was the only Pac-12 school with multiple freshman All-Americans.

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