Dogs' Condon named SEC Player of the Year

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Georgia's Charlie Condon, the nation's leading hitter, is the Southeastern Conference player of the year.

League coaches picked Arkansas' Hagen Smith as the top pitcher and Kentucky's Nick Mingione as SEC coach of the year. The SEC released results of voting among the coaches on Monday, ahead of the conference tournament.

Condon leads the nation with a .451 batting average and a Georgia-record 35 home runs, second-most in SEC single season history. He enters the SEC Tournament on a 24-game hitting streak.

Smith broke the Arkansas career strikeout record and is just five shy of the Razorbacks’ single-season strikeout mark of 155. Smith is 9-0 and leads the nation with a 1.52 ERA while holding batters to a .135 average.

Mingione led Kentucky to its second SEC regular-season title with a school-record 22 league wins. The Wildcats started the year unranked but finished the regular season ranked No. 2 in the D1 Baseball.com and Baseball America polls. Mingione was also coach of the year in 2017.

Texas A&M’s Gavin Grahovac is the SEC Freshman of the Year and Tennessee’s Drew Beam is the SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

Grahovac is hitting .322 with 19 home runs — including 13 in SEC games — and 59 RBIs.

Beam holds a 3.47 GPA in finance and is a two-time member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll.

FILE - Georgia outfielder Charlie Condon (24) watches his hit during an NCAA college baseball game Sunday, Feb. 18, 2024, in Athens, Ga. The field for the NCAA baseball tournament will take shape this week with conference tournaments determining most of the 30 automatic qualifiers.

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