Monday, January 03, 2005

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (Jan. 3, 2005) - East Tennessee State rising senior catcher/right-handed pitcher Caleb Moore (Knoxville, Tenn.) was named as a first-team Louisville Slugger preseason All-American, selected by Collegiate Baseball newspaper in the Jan. 1 issue of the publication. Caleb is ETSU's first baseball player to earn first-team All-American honors and was selected as a utility player on the team, after having a stellar season behind the plate and on the mound in 2004.

            Moore led all NCAA Division I players last season with a .455 batting average and .60 doubles per game (31 total). As a relief pitcher for the Bucs, Caleb went 2-0 with a 3.60 ERA and six saves in 12 appearances.

            Caleb also led the Southern Conference in slugging percentage (.752) and was second in on-base percentage (.509), third in total bases (152) and fourth in hits (92). He led the Bucs last season with 59 runs scored and was second on the team with nine home runs and third with 45 RBIs. Moore finished the season on a 21-game hitting streak, batting .506 (44-87) in that span. Moore collected hits in all but six games last season and had a team-best 27 multi-hit games.

On the mound, Moore earned saves against Xavier on Feb. 22, Radford on Mar. 10, Ball State on Mar. 16, Elon on Mar. 28, Western Carolina on Apr. 4 and Furman on May 23. Caleb's first collegiate win also came last season, against Kentucky on Mar. 3 and he earned another win on May 1 against The Citadel.

Moore broke the SoCon season doubles record, previously held by several players with 26. Caleb also shattered the Buccaneer record for highest season batting average, previously held by Steve Meredith who hit .419 in 1988 and also tied the ETSU season record for saves.

Following the season, Caleb was named Southern Conference Player-of-the-Year by both the league's coaches and media, and was a second-team Louisville Slugger All-American.

            "This is a tremendous honor for Caleb," said ETSU head baseball coach Tony Skole. "Being named a first team Division I All-American places him in very select company. This team is the elite of college baseball. Caleb is very deserving of this honor and I am extremely proud of him."

"It is a great honor, I never thought that I would be a first-team All-American," commented Moore. "Hopefully, I will have another good season and be a member of the team at the end of the year."

East Tennessee State established itself as a program on the rise last season, going 28-30 and 15-15 in Southern Conference play. The Bucs averaged nearly seven runs a game and batted .310 as a team. ETSU opens their 2005 campaign with a three-game series against Niagara on Feb. 18-20 from Cardinal Park in Johnson City, Tenn.

"Caleb has handled his success of a year ago very well," said Skole. "He had a great semester in the classroom and has worked extremely hard this winter to be the best possible player he can be. It is hard to imagine, but Caleb is a much more complete player right now, than he was a year ago. He will be fun to watch this spring." 

"I am just going to approach this season just like I did last year," said Moore. "The only goals I have are to stay healthy and to go out and play as hard as I can."

LOUISVILLE SLUGGER FIRST TEAM PRE-SEASON ALL-AMERICANS
RHP Tim Lincecum, Washington (10-3, 3.53 ERA, 161 K, 82 BB)
RHP Mike Pelfrey, Wichita St. (11-2, 2.18 ERA, 125 K, 24 BB)
RHP Cesar Carrillo, Miami (Fla.) (12-0, 2.69 ERA, 91 K, 43 BB)
RHP Dennis Bigley, Oral Roberts (13-1, 2.91 ERA, 100 K, 25 BB)
LHP Cesar Ramos, Long Beach St. (12-4, 2.29 ERA, 97 K, 35 BB)
LHP Ricky Romero, Cal. St. Fullerton (14-4, 3.37 ERA, 126 K, 42 BB)
Relief Jon Wilson, Winthrop (11-0, 1.88 ERA, 6 SV, 79 K, 17 BB)
C Jeff Clement, Southern California (.293, 10 HR, 12 2B, 43 RBI)
1B John Mayberry, Stanford (.333, 16 HR, 11 2B, 62 RBI, 9 SB)
2B Jed Lowrie, Stanford (.399, 17 HR, 19 2B, 68 RBI, 6 SB)
3B Alex Gordon, Nebraska (.365, 18 HR, 18 2B, 75 RBI, 12 SB)
SS Cameron Blair, Texas Tech. (.371, 14 HR, 23 2B, 81 RBI, 19 SB)
OF Chris Rahl, William & Mary (.389, 20 HR, 10 2B, 70 RBI, 42 SB)
OF Brad Corley, Mississippi St. (.380, 19 HR, 12 2B, 55 RBI, 4 SB)
OF Daniel Carte, Winthrop (Cape Cod League MVP, .339, 10 HR, 14 2B, 54 RBI, 16 SB)
UT Stephen Head, Mississippi (.346, 13 HR, 13 2B, 53 RBI, 6-3 as pitcher, 2.82 ERA, 5 SV)
UT Caleb Moore, East Tennessee St. (.455, 31 2B, 45 RBI, 6 SV, 2-0, 3.60
ERA)