Rawlings ‘Big Stick’ Award Winners Announced

(ROCHESTER, MN) – The Northwoods League is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2013 Rawlings “Big Stick” Award. This award is given to the player at each position who had the best batting average during the 2013 regular season.

Madison Mallards second baseman John LaPrise earned a Rawlings “Big Stick” by leading the league with an outstanding .407 batting average. The Virginia Freshman was also a mid-season All Star and helped lead the Mallards to a Summer Collegiate World Series championship by hitting .500 in the playoffs.

Duluth Huskies outfielder and co-regular season MVP Keith Curcio was second in the league in batting at .367. Outfielder Tim Arakawa of the Mankato MoonDogs was the only player to earn both the Rawlings “Big Stick” and Rawlings “Finest in the Field” Award in 2013. The remainder of the “Finest in the Field” winners will be announced later this month.

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 eight award winners will receive an engraved bat from Rawlings. The complete list of 2013 Rawlings “Big Stick” Award Winners is below.

Position	Player	NWL Team	College	Batting Average
C	Jackson Slaid	Wisconsin Rapids	Montevallo	.326
1B	Marc Flores	Willmar	Hawaii	.352
2B	John LaPrise	Madison	Virginia	.407
3B	Albert Baur	Alexandria	Newberry College	.325
SS	Andrew Sohn	Alexandria	Western Michigan	.349
OF	Keith Curcio	Duluth	Florida Southern	.367
OF	Cam Gibson	Battle Creek	Michigan State	.345
OF	Tim Arakawa	Mankato	Oklahoma State	.346

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.

The Northwoods League is the proven leader in the development of elite college baseball players. The 20-year old summer collegiate league is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 18 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 115 Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including MLB All-Stars Max Scherzer (DET), Chris Sale (CWS), Jordan Zimmermann (WAS), Curtis Granderson (NYY), Allen Craig (STL) and Ben Zobrist (TB). All league games are viewable live and free of charge via the Northwoods League YouTube channel. For more information, visit www.northwoodsleague.com.