Dec. 14, 2011
ATLANTA – Georgia Tech baseball junior pitcher Buck Farmer and sophomore outfielder Kyle Wren were named to the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Preseason All-America Team, which was announced Wednesday.
Farmer is among the top returning front-line starters in the Atlantic Coast Conference, coming off his 2011 campaign in which he posted a 2.82 ERA and an 11-3 record en route to Second Team All-ACC honors. Farmer went 8-1 in the league as Tech’s Sunday starter behind a pair of 2011 MLB draft picks — first-rounder Jed Bradley and fifth-rounder Mark Pope. His eight conference wins were the most by any ACC pitcher and the 6-foot-3 righty fired two complete games. In his best career outing to date, the Conyers, Ga. native went eight scoreless innings and allowed just four hits in a 3-0 win versus No. 9 North Carolina on May 15.
Wren, a First Team All-ACC selection and a Freshman All-America in 2011, batted .340 with a team-leading 90 hits, 57 runs, 11 doubles, seven triples, one home run, 32 RBI and 16 stolen bases while starting all 63 games in center field. A Peachtree City, Ga. native, Wren was one of just two freshmen on the All-ACC First Team. His seven triples paced the conference, ranked 10th in the country and tied for the seventh-most in a regular season in Tech history. Wren’s 90 hits were the third-most in the ACC and the 26th-most in the nation, after the rookie led the conference in regular season hits (87).
In all, the ACC boasted eight selections on the NCBWA Preseason All-America first, second or third teams. Georgia Tech and Florida State were the only league schools with multiple selections.
Head coach Danny Hall returns 23 letterwinners from a 2011 squad that went 42-21 overall, won a share of the ACC Coastal Division crown, reached the NCAA Regional for the 27th time and was one of the youngest in the nation. Hall enters his 19th season on the Flats just 13 wins shy of the 1,000th in his career.
