Drury baseball pitcher and infielder Ryan Colombo has been named the 2017 winner of the Josh Willingham Award as NCAA-II’s most valuable player.
Colombo completed his senior season with the Panthers and, as a pitcher, went 9-2 with a 2.62 earned run average. He set a team record with 106.2 innings pitched and recorded 78 strikeouts against just 33 walks. Drury won 12 of the 14 games that Colombo started on the mound. In the field, the Topeka, Kansas native hit .375 with three home runs and 33 runs batted in. He tied for the team lead with 11 doubles. Colombo played nearly every inning of every game and saw action in all 57 of Drury’s games logging time at pitcher, first base, second base, and shortstop.
He helped the Panthers to a 37-20 record, a West Division championship in the Great Lakes Valley Conference as Drury went 19-9 in the league, and the team’s fifth NCAA-II national tournament appearance in the program’s 11-year history.
Colombo is also one of 12 finalists for the Tino Martinez Division II National Player of the Year award and earlier this year was named the Player of the Year in the GLVC.
Off the field, Colombo has been an All-Academic selection in the GLVC every year of his career and was a finalist for Drury’s Dr. Edsel Matthews Award which is given to an athlete that has exhibited athletic success, academic excellence, and leadership throughout his or her career.
Colombo is the first Drury baseball player ever to receive the Williingham Award.
The Josh Willingham Award was created in 2013 and is named after the former University of North Alabama star who had an 11-year career in Major League Baseball with the Marlins and Twins. The award is bestowed upon a player who not only excels on the field, but in the dugout, clubhouse and practice field as well, and leads his team to national championship caliber status.
So far this year, Colombo has been named:
Willingham Award, NCAA-II Most Valuable Player
Great Lakes Valley Conference Player of the Year
1st Team All-GLVC
1st Team All-Midwest Region by the D2CCA
1st Team All-Midwest Region by NCBWA
1st Team All-Midwest Region by ABCA/Rawling
1st Team All-American by NCBWA
Tino Martinez D-II Player of the Year finalist
