Vote Here (Up to 25 Times per Day)
THE FLATS – Fans have until 5 p.m. on Tuesday, June 14 to vote for Georgia Tech catcher Kevin Parada, who is one of three finalist nationally for the 2022 Golden Spikes Award. Fan can vote by clicking HERE and can vote up to 25 times per day.
The Golden Spikes Award is awarded by a voting body that consists of national baseball media, professional baseball personnel, USA Baseball staff and previous winners, totaling more than 150 voters. Fans also vote simultaneously. Final selections made by the voting body and fans will again carry a 95 percent and 5 percent weight of each player’s total votes, respectively.
The award is presented annually to the top amateur baseball player in the nation who best exhibits exceptional on-field ability and exemplary sportsmanship. Parada joins Oregon State’s Cooper Hjerpe and Texas’ Ivan Melendez on the shortlist.
Parada, who just finished his second season on the Flats, joins an elite list of Yellow Jackets to be named a Golden Spikes Award finalist and is the first since Mark Teixeira in 2000. Also named from The Flats was Ty Griffin (1988) and Jason Varitek, who was a finalist in 1993 before winning the award in 1994.
A 2022 first-team All-American already, Parada had an excellent sophomore campaign in which he was named first-team all-ACC, a finalist for Buster Posey Award and the Dick Howser Trophy and earned National Player of the Week honors three times. He was also named District 4’s Co-Player of the Year by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association.
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.
The presentation of the 44th Golden Spikes Award will take place on Friday, June 24 during the “College World Series Special” on ESPN.
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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