Cincinnati Reds Official Release
CINCINNATI – Georgia Tech sophomore Kevin Parada (Pasadena, Calif./Loyola) continues to rack up the accolades as the Yellow Jacket catcher was named the 2022 Johnny Bench Award winner, the Cincinnati Reds announced Tuesday evening.
The 2022 Johnny Bench Awards, presented by MSA Sport, are hand-picked by Bench – a Hall of Famer and largely considered the greatest catcher in baseball history – and are awarded to the top NCAA Division I male and female college catchers, along with the top high school baseball and softball catchers from Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and West Virginia.
Parada becomes the second catcher on The Flats to win the Johnny Bench Award, joining Joey Bart, who won the award in 2018. Matt Wieters (2007) and Zane Evans (2013) were also finalists for the award at Georgia Tech. He becomes the fifth catcher hailing from the Atlantic Coast Conference to win the award.
A 2022 unanimous first-team all-American, Parada had an excellent sophomore season in 2022 in which he was named first-team all-ACC, all-Region and NCBWA District 4 Player of the Year, in addition to a finalist for the Buster Posey Award, Golden Spikes Award and Dick Howser Trophy. He also earned three National Player of the Week honors.
The Pasadena, Calif. native ranked among the nation’s best all year, finishing the regular season ranking sixth with a school-record 26 home runs, second in total bases (174), third in RBI (85), fifth in runs (74) and 35th in hits (85). In the Atlantic Coast Conference, Parada led in runs and RBI, ranked third in home runs, fourth in hits and was the fourth-toughest hitter to strikeout in the league.
Parada started all 60 of Georgia Tech’s games this season, playing an impressive 55 of them behind the dish, where he posted a .992 fielding percentage and threw out 12 would-be base thieves.
Fans can attend the Johnny Bench Awards Luncheon on July 26 at Great American Ball Park, featuring Johnny Bench and the award winners.
Alexander-Tharpe Fund
The Alexander-Tharpe Fund is the fundraising arm of Georgia Tech athletics, providing scholarship, operations and facilities support for Georgia Tech’s 400-plus student-athletes. Be a part of developing Georgia Tech’s Everyday Champions and helping the Yellow Jackets compete for championships at the highest levels of college athletics by supporting the Annual Athletic Scholarship Fund, which directly provides scholarships for Georgia Tech student-athletes. To learn more about supporting the Yellow Jackets, visit atfund.org.
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