DALLAS – Fresh off earning Freshman All-America honors from the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association a few days ago, Tennessee pitcher AJ Russell added another impressive honor to his resume by garnering NCBWA Third Team All-America accolades, as announced by the organization on Wednesday.
Russell is the program’s 55th All-American and just the fifth true freshman to be named an All-American at UT, including the third in the last two years, joining teammates Chase Burns and Drew Beam, who accomplished the feat in 2022.
The right-handed relief pitcher has put up eye-popping numbers in his true freshman campaign for the Big Orange, leading all pitchers on the team who have thrown a minimum of 25 innings with a 0.94 ERA, a 0.56 WHIP and a .100 opponent batting average. Russell is 2-0 on the year with 46 strikeouts and just seven walks in 28.2 innings pitched.
The Franklin, Tennessee, native has recorded multiple strikeouts in 15 of his 22 appearances and allowed just one run on five hits in 10 innings during SEC play.
Russell and the Volunteers open their sixth appearance in the Men’s College World Series on Saturday, June 17 at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN against No. 5 national seed LSU.
-UT Athletics
