BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – For the fifth time since the baseball season ended, Samford freshman pitcher Samuel Strickland has been named to a Freshman All-America team as Baseball America named him to its second team Wednesday morning.
 
Strickland was one of eight starting pitcher named to the two teams. He was joined by Kevin Abel from Oregon State, Tanner Burns from Auburn, Patrick Fredrickson from Minnesota, Zach Pettway from UCLA, Nicholas Dombrowski from Hartford, Ma'Khaill Hillard from LSU and Drey Jameson from Ball State.
 
Previously this postseason, Strickland has received First-Team Freshman All-America honors from the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association, Collegiate Baseball and D1Baseball.com, and second team accolades by Perfect Game/Rawlings.
  
Strickland was named the Southern Conference's Freshman of the Year earlier this season. He became just the third Samford player to be named SoCon freshman of the year in school history.
 
Samford's hard-throwing left-hander went 8-2 with an ERA of 2.33 and a team-best 87 strikeouts in his rookie campaign. A native of Birmingham, Alabama, Strickland held opposing hitters to a SoCon-best .177 batting average, ranking second in the league with five wins in conference play. Strickland only allowed a total of 15 walks over 81 innings of work.
 
Earlier this season, he was also named SoCon Pitcher of the Week four times, including May 14 after throwing a complete-game, four-hit win against Western Carolina on May 12. Against SoCon opponents, Strickland went 5-1 with a 2.01 ERA and 37 strikeouts.
 
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