{"id":1771,"date":"2017-09-27T21:16:23","date_gmt":"2017-09-27T21:16:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/?p=1771"},"modified":"2017-09-27T21:17:20","modified_gmt":"2017-09-27T21:17:20","slug":"rivets-feduccia-wins-rawlings-big-stick-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/2017\/09\/27\/rivets-feduccia-wins-rawlings-big-stick-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Rivets\u2019 Feduccia wins Rawlings \u201cBig Stick\u201d Award"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOVES PARK, Ill. \u2013<\/strong> Rockford Rivets catcher Hunter Feduccia has been recognized as one of the Northwoods League\u2019s best hitters after a summer that prompted his manager to compare him to one of this year\u2019s top major-league rookies.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The NWL announced Wednesday that Feduccia is one of the recipients of the 2017 Rawlings \u201cBig Stick\u201d Award. The award is given to the player at each position who had the best batting average during the 2017 regular season.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Feduccia hit .348, fifth in the league, with eight home runs and 41 RBI for the Rivets, who reached the playoffs for the first time. Feduccia went without a hit in just 10 of the 46 games he played this summer.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cIn my opinion, Hunter was in the running for MVP all summer based on his hitting and also how he played defense,\u201d Rivets manager Brian Smith said. \u201cHe had two walkoffs, which is huge to put a college kid into a situation like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI knew what I was getting when he came in, but my expectations weren\u2019t going to be as high because he had just caught 52 games at his junior college.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

During the summer, Feduccia also transferred from Louisiana State University-Eunice to College World Series runner-up LSU. Smith said he carefully crafted frequent days on the bench or designated hitter for Feduccia to minimize the impact of the catcher\u2019s heavy usage in the spring and got maximum results. Eight of Feduccia\u2019s 19 multi-hit games came the day after a day out of the lineup, a scheduled off day for the Rivets or a rainout.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Smith specifically highlighted Feduccia\u2019s July \u2013 deep enough into the season that even College World Series participants have made it to summer ball, early enough that most pitchers have not hit an innings cap set by their college coaches \u2013 what he said is the best quality of baseball during the NWL season. In July, Feduccia hit .449 (40-for-89) with seven home runs and 25 RBI. That month, he had nearly twice as many extra-base hits (21) as strikeouts (12). Feduccia had a 13-game hitting streak in July and went hitless in just two games the whole month.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cFor a 20-game stretch, he was the greatest hitter on the planet,\u201d said Smith, who gave Feduccia eight days off in July. \u201cThe kid was exhausted, and he was (still) hitting walkoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In the 10th<\/sup> inning on July 10, Feduccia hit the first walkoff home run in Rivets history to beat the Kalamazoo Kings, 5-4. Feduccia had previously singled in the winning run in a 7-6 walkoff victory over the Madison Mallards on June 13.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cHe was Aaron Judge (in July) and I didn\u2019t even know if he was on the bus,\u201d Smith said. \u201cThe kid never talked. He would never ask for a day off.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For the season, Feduccia hit better than .400 in four key situational categories \u2013 with runners on base, with runners in scoring position, with the bases loaded and with runners in scoring position and two out. In the latter category, he hit .480 (12-for-25).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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. Kalamazoo infielder Connor Hollis hit .375 to win the league batting title and one of the other awards. The complete list of 2017 Rawlings \u201cBig Stick\u201d Award Winners is below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Position<\/strong><\/td>\nPlayer<\/strong><\/td>\nNWL Team<\/strong><\/td>\nCollege<\/strong><\/td>\nBatting Average<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
C<\/strong><\/td>\nHunter Feduccia<\/td>\nRockford<\/td>\nLSU<\/td>\n.348<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1B<\/strong><\/td>\nRyan Stekl<\/td>\nWisconsin Rapids<\/td>\nCanisius<\/td>\n.364<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2B<\/strong><\/td>\nMatthew Mika<\/td>\nLakeshore<\/td>\nCentral Florida<\/td>\n.335<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3B<\/strong><\/td>\nDavid Villar<\/td>\nLa Crosse<\/td>\nSouth Florida<\/td>\n.312<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
SS<\/strong><\/td>\nConnor Hollis<\/td>\nKalamazoo<\/td>\nHouston<\/td>\n.375<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
INF<\/strong><\/td>\nBryson Stott<\/td>\nWisconsin Rapids<\/td>\nUNLV<\/td>\n.352<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
OF<\/strong><\/td>\nZac Taylor<\/td>\nMadison<\/td>\nIllinois<\/td>\n.350<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
OF<\/strong><\/td>\nDaniel Amaral<\/td>\nMankato<\/td>\nUCLA<\/td>\n.347<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
OF<\/strong><\/td>\nRyan Anderson<\/td>\nBismarck<\/td>\nUC Davis<\/td>\n.340<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The Rockford Rivets are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League, which will play its 25th<\/sup> season of summer collegiate baseball in 2018. The Northwoods 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\u00a0Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including two-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (Washington Nationals), two-time World Champion Ben Zobrist (Chicago Cubs) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (Boston Red Sox), Jordan Zimmermann (Detroit Tigers), Curtis Granderson (Los Angeles Dodgers) and Lucas Duda (Tampa Bay Rays). All league games are viewable live via the <\/em>Northwoods League Website, NorthwoodsLeague.com.<\/em><\/a>\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LOVES PARK, Ill. \u2013 Rockford Rivets catcher Hunter Feduccia has been recognized as one of the Northwoods League\u2019s best hitters […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":1772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,19,11],"tags":[159,156,75,157,66,158,43],"class_list":["post-1771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-categories","category-team-news","category-update-ticker","tag-awards","tag-hunter-feduccia","tag-lsu","tag-lsu-eunice","tag-northwoods-league","tag-rawlings-big-stick","tag-rockford-rivets"],"yoast_head":"\nRivets\u2019 Feduccia wins Rawlings \u201cBig Stick\u201d Award - Rockford Rivets<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/2017\/09\/27\/rivets-feduccia-wins-rawlings-big-stick-award\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rivets\u2019 Feduccia wins Rawlings \u201cBig Stick\u201d Award\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"LOVES PARK, Ill. \u2013 Rockford Rivets catcher Hunter Feduccia has been recognized as one of the Northwoods League\u2019s best hitters [...]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/2017\/09\/27\/rivets-feduccia-wins-rawlings-big-stick-award\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rockford Rivets\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-09-27T21:16:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-09-27T21:17:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2017\/09\/Feduccia-rounds-third.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"629\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"418\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"kylemckenna\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"kylemckenna\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/2017\/09\/27\/rivets-feduccia-wins-rawlings-big-stick-award\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/2017\/09\/27\/rivets-feduccia-wins-rawlings-big-stick-award\/\",\"name\":\"Rivets\u2019 Feduccia wins Rawlings \u201cBig Stick\u201d Award - Rockford Rivets\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/2017\/09\/27\/rivets-feduccia-wins-rawlings-big-stick-award\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/2017\/09\/27\/rivets-feduccia-wins-rawlings-big-stick-award\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2017\/09\/Feduccia-rounds-third.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-09-27T21:16:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-09-27T21:17:20+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/#\/schema\/person\/22ee8c479783770994439eff63da6c5c\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/2017\/09\/27\/rivets-feduccia-wins-rawlings-big-stick-award\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/2017\/09\/27\/rivets-feduccia-wins-rawlings-big-stick-award\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/2017\/09\/27\/rivets-feduccia-wins-rawlings-big-stick-award\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2017\/09\/Feduccia-rounds-third.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2017\/09\/Feduccia-rounds-third.jpg\",\"width\":629,\"height\":418},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/2017\/09\/27\/rivets-feduccia-wins-rawlings-big-stick-award\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Rivets\u2019 Feduccia wins Rawlings \u201cBig Stick\u201d Award\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/\",\"name\":\"Rockford Rivets\",\"description\":\"Screws are hot!\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/#\/schema\/person\/22ee8c479783770994439eff63da6c5c\",\"name\":\"kylemckenna\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bd335cbbb6ce96f1b2924373f1ff150639414cb91bd1e2212df38e8ce3c83a2d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bd335cbbb6ce96f1b2924373f1ff150639414cb91bd1e2212df38e8ce3c83a2d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"kylemckenna\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/author\/kylemckenna\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Rivets\u2019 Feduccia wins Rawlings \u201cBig Stick\u201d Award - Rockford Rivets","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/2017\/09\/27\/rivets-feduccia-wins-rawlings-big-stick-award\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Rivets\u2019 Feduccia wins Rawlings \u201cBig Stick\u201d Award","og_description":"LOVES PARK, Ill. \u2013 Rockford Rivets catcher Hunter Feduccia has been recognized as one of the Northwoods League\u2019s best hitters [...]","og_url":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/2017\/09\/27\/rivets-feduccia-wins-rawlings-big-stick-award\/","og_site_name":"Rockford Rivets","article_published_time":"2017-09-27T21:16:23+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-09-27T21:17:20+00:00","og_image":[{"width":629,"height":418,"url":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2017\/09\/Feduccia-rounds-third.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"kylemckenna","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"kylemckenna","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/2017\/09\/27\/rivets-feduccia-wins-rawlings-big-stick-award\/","url":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/2017\/09\/27\/rivets-feduccia-wins-rawlings-big-stick-award\/","name":"Rivets\u2019 Feduccia wins Rawlings \u201cBig Stick\u201d Award - Rockford Rivets","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/2017\/09\/27\/rivets-feduccia-wins-rawlings-big-stick-award\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/2017\/09\/27\/rivets-feduccia-wins-rawlings-big-stick-award\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2017\/09\/Feduccia-rounds-third.jpg","datePublished":"2017-09-27T21:16:23+00:00","dateModified":"2017-09-27T21:17:20+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/#\/schema\/person\/22ee8c479783770994439eff63da6c5c"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/2017\/09\/27\/rivets-feduccia-wins-rawlings-big-stick-award\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/2017\/09\/27\/rivets-feduccia-wins-rawlings-big-stick-award\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/2017\/09\/27\/rivets-feduccia-wins-rawlings-big-stick-award\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2017\/09\/Feduccia-rounds-third.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2017\/09\/Feduccia-rounds-third.jpg","width":629,"height":418},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/2017\/09\/27\/rivets-feduccia-wins-rawlings-big-stick-award\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Rivets\u2019 Feduccia wins Rawlings \u201cBig Stick\u201d Award"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/#website","url":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/","name":"Rockford Rivets","description":"Screws are hot!","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/#\/schema\/person\/22ee8c479783770994439eff63da6c5c","name":"kylemckenna","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bd335cbbb6ce96f1b2924373f1ff150639414cb91bd1e2212df38e8ce3c83a2d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bd335cbbb6ce96f1b2924373f1ff150639414cb91bd1e2212df38e8ce3c83a2d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"kylemckenna"},"url":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/author\/kylemckenna\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}