Casey McElroy Named Lousiville Slugger Freshman All- American

Grit, determination and hard work earned national attention for a freshman baseball player this spring.

Casey McElroy, shortstop for Auburn baseball, was named a Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American last Wednesday. During the season, he also received SEC Freshman of the Week on March 9.

This is the second consecutive season an Auburn player has won the title. Grant Dayton, Brian Fletcher and Hunter Morris were awarded the title after the 2008 season.

McElroy, from Orlando, Fla., played second base while at Boone High school until his senior year when he moved to short stop. Out of the Auburn infielders, he was the only one to start all 56 games.

McElroy finished his first season at Auburn with outstanding statistics. He hit a team best .330 as a left-handed batter. McElroy hit seven home runs, 13 doubles and 35 RBIs.

A mass communication major, McElroy said he chose to come to Auburn because of the treatment he got while visiting. "I took a visit here and went to a football game and I really liked the whole fan base and the facilities," he said. "I wanted to be a part of it."

Head Coach John Pawlowski thought McElroy was deserving of the title. "It's a great tribute to Casey and the hard work that he has put in, and he has worked extremely hard and improved his game," he said. "It's a great culmination of a great freshman year for Casey."

Pawlowski described McElroy as a player with great perseverance that has only improved his game since being at Auburn.

"He is a blue collar, hard nosed type of ball player that won't take no for an answer," he said. "He comes to the field with a great demeanor and a great set of skills that he has worked hard at and improved."

Pawlowski added McElroy's offensive and defensive skills played a large role in his success. "His defense improved tremendously from the beginning of season to end and also offensively," he said. "It's tough to jump into this league as a freshman but he held his own offensively."

McElroy's teammates agreed that high school baseball and college ball are on different levels. "As a freshman, to be able to come in and perform like he did right off the bat is pretty rare in college baseball and it really shows that he came prepared," said Paul Burnside, senior pitcher. "He worked really hard and really fast to make sure that he could compete at the next level."

Burnside added that although McElroy is not the biggest player on the team, he plays his position very well.

"He's one of the smallest athletes on the team, but he does everything that you ask him to do and he does everything a shortstop should," he said. "He makes a lot of plays and he batted pretty well for us this year."

As a response to McElroy's batting average, Burnside said it doesn't get much better than that.

McElroy said he is looking forward to next season. "I think the first season went pretty good for the most part, but it was disappointing at the end," he said. "I think we showed a lot of promise and I'm looking forward to next year."

This summer, McElroy is playing in the Valley League in Virginia.