RUSTON, La. – In their final years as Louisiana Tech Bulldogs, longtime teammates
Parker Bates and
Hunter Wells earned 2021 ABCA/Rawlings All-America honors, as announced by the American Baseball Coaches Association on Saturday morning.
Bates, now an All-America honoree in back-to-back seasons, was named a Third Team All-American after leading Conference USA in on-base percentage (.471) while also leading the Bulldogs in RBI (62), triples (four) and HBPs (14). The Tyler, Texas native led the C-USA with a .406 batting average and a .523 on-base percentage in conference play.
Wells, who has now earned three All-America honors in as many days, nets his second First Team All-America nod after leading Conference USA in batting average (.385), hits (101) and total bases (169). Wells set four records in his final season with the Bulldogs, including the career hits record and career triples record at Louisiana Tech.
LA Tech's two- and three-hole batters from the 2021 season combined to tally 57 multi-hit games and 30 multi-RBI games.
Bates now joins Wells and teammates
Taylor Young and
Jonathan Fincher to form the quartet of Bulldogs to earn All-America honors in 2021.
Young was named a Collegiate Baseball Third Team All-American on June 3, while
Fincher was tabbed an NCBWA Third Team All-American on Wednesday.
The teams are voted on by members of the American Baseball Coaches Association and the process is led by the ABCA NCAA Division I All-America Committee, which is chaired by Tommy Raffo of Arkansas State University.