Richey Burgos, a member of
the Mount Vernon Nazarene University
baseball team, was selected as an NAIA
Honorable Mention All-American when the NAIA
announced its All-American Teams on Friday
prior to the championship game of the NAIA
World Series.
Burgos,
a senior third baseman from Ponce, Puerto
Rico, put together one of the best offensive
seasons in school history in 2008 to cap off
a stellar career. The former Puerto Rico
Academy product led the Cougars with a .448
batting average, a .746 slugging percentage,
a .539 on-base percentage, 90 hits, 17
doubles, 13 home runs, 68 RBI, and a
school-record 39 walks. He also had two
triples and 52 runs scored. Among the many
honors he received this season, he was the
American Mideast Conference, National
Christian College Athletic Association East
Region, NAIA Region IX, and NCCAA National
Player of the Year.
For his career, Burgos finishes first in
school history in games played (209), at
bats (701), hits (281), and walks (137),
second in batting average (.401), home runs
(35), and RBI (206), third in doubles (55),
fifth in runs scored (185), and tenth in
assists (332).
Burgos will wait to see if his name is
called in the upcoming amateur draft that
will be conducted by Major League Baseball
on June 5-6. However, if he fails to get
picked up by a team, Burgos plans to sign
with the Chillicothe Paints of the
independent Frontier League and start his
career in professional baseball there.