June 28, 2004

The American Baseball Coaches Association released its All-America first, second and third teams this week and a pair of George Mason players received honors for the 2004 season.

Junior first baseman Chris Looze was named second-team All-America, the highest honor received by a player in the history of George Mason baseball. The only previous Patriot to be honored by the ABCA as an All-American was Kevin Burke in 1985. Burke, who had 95 hits and 80 RBI that year, was named third-team. Looze broke Burke's team record for RBI in a single-season this year when he drove in 81 runs.

Joining Looze and becoming only the third Patriot named All-America by the ABCA was junior right-handed pitcher Stacen Gant, who was selected to the third team. Gant was 10-1 this year with a 2.72 ERA and 87 strikeouts in 119 innings. His only loss came in the NCAA Tournament when the Patriots' season was ended by Virginia. Gant is the first George Mason pitcher to receive an All-America honor. Last week Gant was named ECAC Pitcher of the Year.

The ABCA also released its All-East team, of which both Gant and Looze were members of the first team. Joining them on the first team was senior shortstop Jeff Palumbo. Making the second-team All-East were senior third baseman Nick Shimer and junior outfielder Adam Innerst. Both Palumbo and Shimer have begun their professional careers, Palumbo with the San Francisco organization and Shimer in the Philadelphia minor-league system. Shimer currently leads his team in homers and slugging percentage and is second in batting average and RBI.