Kotsay, Garrido Win Top Baseball Honors

Mark Kotsay, who led Cal State Fullerton to its third national title, was named the winner of the R.E. Smith Award as the college baseball player of the year, it was announced Monday.

Titan Coach Augie Garrido also was selected coach of the year by the National Baseball Coaches’ Assn.

The Smith Award was one of several won this season by Kotsay, a sophomore center fielder and relief pitcher. He was Collegiate Baseball’s co-national player of the year with Tennessee’s Todd Helton.

Kotsay, from Santa Fe Springs Santa Fe High, also was the Big West Conference player of the year and the most valuable player of the College World Series.

He was selected to try out for the national team, which starts tryouts today in Millington, Tenn.

Kotsay hit .422 (111 for 263), which is a single-season record for the Titans. He also had 20 doubles, five triples, 21 home runs and 90 runs batted in.

His final two homes runs came in the first two innings of Fullerton’s 11-5 victory over USC Saturday in the national championship game.

He had a slugging percentage of .776 and an on-base percentage of .492. He made one error in 161 chances.

Kotsay also was impressive out of the bullpen for the Titans. In 21 appearances, he had a 2-1 record and 11 saves. He had an earned-run average of 0.31 and struck out 27 in 29 innings.

Helton and Texas Tech’s Clint Bryant were the other finalists.

Garrido won the coaches’ award for the fourth time. He also received it in 1975, 1979 and 1984. The Titans won titles in 1979 and 1984.

Garrido led Fullerton to a 57-9 record this season, the best in Titan history.