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Published On: September 26th, 2017

Rawlings ‘Big Stick’ Award Winners Announced

Connor Hollis from the Growlers tops the list with .375 average

Rochester, Minn. – The Northwoods League is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2017 Rawlings “Big Stick” Award. This award is given to the player at each position who had the best batting average during the 2017 regular season.

Kalamazoo infielder Connor Hollis leads the list of award winners. Hollis earned a Rawlings “Big Stick” by leading the league with an impressive .375 batting average.

Rawlings has been rewarding the top hitters in the Northwoods League since 2007 in addition to honoring the best fielders since 2002. To honor their achievement, the nine award winners will receive an engraved bat from Rawlings. The complete list of 2017 Rawlings “Big Stick” Award Winners is below.

Position Player NWL Team College Batting Average
C Hunter Feduccia Rockford LSU .348
1B Ryan Stekl Wisconsin Rapids Canisius .364
2B Matthew Mika Lakeshore Central Florida .335
3B David Villar La Crosse South Florida .312
SS Connor Hollis Kalamazoo Houston .375
INF Bryson Stott Wisconsin Rapids UNLV .352
OF Zac Taylor Madison Illinois .350
OF Daniel Amaral Mankato UCLA .347
OF Ryan Anderson Bismarck UC Davis .340

To be eligible a player would have needed to have enough plate appearances to qualify for a batting title. A player must have a minimum of 2.7 plate appearances per team game.

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The Northwoods League is the proven leader in the development of elite college baseball players. The 24-year old summer collegiate league is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 20 teams, drawing significantly more fans, in a friendly ballpark experience, than any league of its kind. A valuable training ground for coaches, umpires and front office staff, more than 180 Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including two-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (WAS), two-time World Series Champion Ben Zobrist (CHC) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (BOS), Jordan Zimmermann (DET), Curtis Granderson (LAD) and Lucas Duda (TBR). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League website. For more information, visit www.northwoodsleague.com or download the Northwoods League Mobile App on the Apple App Store or on Google Play.