New Mexico State Player Has HOW MANY Home Runs?
Photo: NM State
Last night I came across a tweet from @OmahaBoundCWS that mentioned Georgia Tech’s Kyle McCann had just hit his 10th home run on the very young college baseball season. I instantly had to do a double take. Ten? The season just started three weeks ago. But sure enough that number was accurate. McCann also holds a .377 batting average as well. While I did a little research this morning in preparation of writing an article about how McCann was dominating the country in total home runs (he must be with ten, right?) I was shocked to discover he didn’t even have the highest total in the nation.
Photo: nmsuroundup.com
Enter Nick Gonzales, infielder for the New Mexico State Aggies. Gonzales has a total of 11 home runs on the college baseball season. The Aggies have only played 14 games so far. I thought surely McCann must be leading the nation by 4-5 home runs when I seen the tweet from last night, and was dumbfounded to find out Gonzales had more. He’s had two 2-homer games so far this season and has also homered in the last five games. His season total thus far puts him on pace for 43 home runs by the end of the season…which is a very good number for major leaguers to have…in a 162 game season! These numbers are truly impressive no matter the circumstances, but especially after college baseball home run totals have dropped ever since BBCOR bats were forced upon the players in 2011. BBCOR bats are a lot like wood bats, in regards to how the ball jumps off them after contact.
It doesn’t stop there for Gonzales, however. Through these 14 games, he also has a batting average of .615, with 40 RBIs, 7 doubles, and 40 runs scored. There really are no words for the numbers he has put up at the beginning of this season. Now, it’s obvious that no player could keep up with that pace throughout the three-month season, but it will be VERY interesting to see how long he can keep it up, and what his totals will be after their last regular season game on May 18 against Cal Baptist. I really wish college baseball received the coverage that college football and basketball receive because if so, this guy would be all over ESPN and other sporting news networks. What he’s doing is remarkable and deserves a lot of recognition. Major props goes to Gonzales, along with Georgia Tech’s Kyle McCann, for their sensational starts to the season, and here’s to hoping they can keep putting up video game-type stats.