North Carolina State University Athletics
NC State's Aaron Bates Named Third-Team All-American
6/3/2005 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
June 3, 2005
RALEIGH, N.C. - NC State baseball coach Elliott Avent knew he was getting a pretty good hitter when then-catcher Aaron Bates transferred to Raleigh from San Jose State this past fall. Nine months later, Avent calls Bates the best hitter he's ever had as a head coach, and Collegiate Baseball and Louisville Slugger honored Bates on Thursday by selecting him as a third-team All-American.
Bates, a redshirt-sophomore from La Selva Beach, Calif., who has since moved to first base, heads into play in this weekend's NCAA Lincoln Regional ranked 12th in the nation with a .420 batting average, and he leads the Wolfpack in almost every key offensive stat, including average, runs scored (60), hits (84), doubles (16), home runs (12), RBIs (62), total bases (138), slugging percentate (.690), walks (36) and on-base percentage (.522). He leads the team in several of those categories by a considerable margin.
"Aaron has been outstanding for us from the start," Avent said Thursday at the Lincoln Regional's pretournament press conference. "But I had no idea how good he was going to be. Looking back, He's the best hitter I've had as a head coach, and I've been a head coach for 17 years now."
Bates has been especially hot since the first of April, batting .466 with nine doubles, nine home runs and 37 RBIs in 29 games, but in the last 20 games he has really turned on the heat, hitting .493 with six doubles, seven homers and 24 RBIs.
