Negrych garners first-team All-America honors

After being named the Big East Preseason Player of the Year, Pitt second baseman Jim Negrych… After being named the Big East Preseason Player of the Year, Pitt second baseman Jim Negrych embarked on a stellar season that saw him garner numerous accolades.

Negrych, a first-team All-Big East selection in 2005, added yet another award to his list after Baseball America named him to the first-team All-America team. He joins P.J Hiser, who received the selection by Collegiate Baseball last year, as the only Panthers named to first-team All-America squads.

This isn’t the first time Baseball America noticed Negrych, either. The publication named him a freshman All-American last season and selected him as the best pure hitter, No. 2 major league prospect and best defensive second baseman in the Big East.

The selection shouldn’t come as a surprise to most; Negrych’s numbers spoke for themselves in 2005. He led Pitt in home runs (16), RBIs (59), and on-base percentage (.471), while his 44 walks set a new single-season school record.

In addition to those team-leading numbers, he also slugged 14 doubles, scored 52 runs, compiled a .694 slugging percentage and led the team in Big East action with a .385 batting average, eight home runs and 25 RBIs.

Negrych also made a habit of stepping up when the team needed him most. On Pitt’s biggest baseball stage this past season — with Pitt on the brink of playing in the Big East tournament championship game — Negrych provided the spark that lifted the Panthers over the Boston College Eagles.

His solo home run in the bottom of the fourth inning tied the game at one, but it was his two-run 400-foot-plus home run in the 12th inning that sent Pitt to the final game — its first in 10 years.

It’s in games like these that Negrych proves to Pitt fans why he’s so special and why he’s received so much national attention in the collegiate baseball world.

Once school baseball ends, Negrych — along with several other Pitt players — takes his game to the summer leagues each season, where he easily makes the transition from Big East competition.

Last summer, after his standout freshman season, Negrych participated in the New England Collegiate Baseball League and continued to cause problems for all pitchers.

During his time in the NECBL, he earned five different awards, including Co-MVP, defensive MVP, Rookie of the Year, first team all-league selection and was named to the all-star team as well.

This year, however, Negrych was selected to play in the Cape Cod Baseball League in the summer — college baseball’s most prestigious summer league.

Through 10 games with the Harwich (Mass.) Mariners, Negrych is batting .294 with three home runs and seven RBIs. He also currently leads the team in runs scored (9) and slugging percentage (.588).

Negrych will likely be a top prospect for next year’s major league draft and may face the same situation that center fielder Ben Copeland found himself in this year, the choice of staying in college or beginning his professional baseball career.

But his junior season will come before all that, as Negrych will return as a leader of a young Pitt team that carries with it high expectations.