ACC baseball awards announced
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (theACC.com) – Florida State’s James Tibbs III was tabbed the ACC Player of the Year while Wake Forest’s Chase Burns earned ACC Pitcher of the Year honors. North Carolina’s Vance Honeycutt was named the ACC Defensive Player of the Year, while the Tar Heels’ Scott Forbes garnered ACC Coach of the Year honors. In addition, Georgia Tech’s Drew Burress was tabbed the ACC Freshman of the Year.
ACC season honors were determined by a vote of the league’s 14 head coaches. The coaches also selected the All-ACC team announced on Monday afternoon.
Tibbs III becomes the first Seminole to win Player of the Year since Mat Nelson in 2021 and the ninth player in Florida State player to win the award. Tibbs helped lead the Seminoles to the last undefeated record in the country, beginning the season 19-0. The outfielder hit .385 in his 53 starts this season, tallying 77 hits, 17 doubles, 24 home runs and 78 runs batted in, adding seven stolen bases in the process. In addition to leading the ACC in home runs and runs batted in, Tibbs’ .840 slugging percentage and 168 total bases also lead the league.
Burns becomes the third straight Demon Deacon to earn ACC Pitcher of the Year honors after Rhett Lowder won back-to-back awards in 2022 and 2023. Burns has tallied 196 strikeouts on the season, fifth-most in ACC single-season history. The Wake Forest right-hander boasts a 10-1 record on the season, posting double-digit strikeouts in 11 of his 14 starts on the season.
While leading the country in strikeouts, Burns has the second-lowest earned run average in the ACC at 2.63. Opposing hitters are batting just .163 against the Hendersonville, Tennessee, native and have mustered just 51 base hits against him all season. Earlier on Monday, Burns matched the ACC record with his sixth Pitcher of the Week award of the season.
Burress becomes the first Yellow Jacket since Matt Wieters in 2005 to win Freshman of the Year. Burress joins a grouping of Jason Varitek, Nomar Garciaparra, Mark Teixeira, Micah Owings and Wieters as the only players in Georgia Tech history to win the award.
Burress hit .379 during his freshman campaign with 22 home runs, 14 doubles, two triples and 51 runs batted in. On February 27, Burress went 4-for-4 with four home runs and six runs batted in during a midweek contest against Georgia State.
Honeycutt repeats as the Defensive Player of the Year after winning the award in 2023. The Tar Heels’ outfielder posted a .987 fielding percentage on the season with dozens of dazzling grabs. Honeycutt added four outfield assists throughout the season while tallying 148 putouts.
Forbes earned ACC Coach of the Year honors as he becomes the third Tar Heel head coach to win the award, joining Mike Fox in 2018 and Mike Roberts in 1989. Forbes led the Tar Heels to their first Coastal Division championship since 2018. North Carolina is one of just 13 teams nationally with 40 or more wins on the season.
North Carolina leads all schools with eight total selections on the ACC first, second or third teams, followed by seven from Virginia and six from Duke.
A total of 13 the conference’s 14 baseball schools had at least one player voted to the All-ACC and/or ACC All-Freshman Teams.
Player of the Year: James Tibbs III, OF, Florida State
Pitcher of the Year: Chase Burns, SP, Wake Forest
Freshman of the Year: Drew Burress, OF, Georgia Tech
Defensive Player of the Year: Vance Honeycutt, OF, North Carolina
Coach of the Year: Scott Forbes, North Carolina
All-ACC Teams
First Team
Aidan Knaak, SP, Clemson*
Charlie Beilenson, RP, Duke
Ben Miller, 3B, Duke
Zac Morris, 2B, Duke
Jonathan Santucci, SP, Duke
Jamie Arnold, SP, Florida State
James Tibbs III, OF, Florida State
Drew Burress, OF, Georgia Tech
Gage Ziehl, SP, Miami*
Casey Cook, OF, North Carolina*
Vance Honeycutt, OF, North Carolina
Jacob Cozart, C, NC State
Ethan Anderson, DH/UT, Virginia
Griff O’Ferrall, SS, Virginia
Chase Burns, SP, Wake Forest
Nick Kurtz, 1B, Wake Forest
Second Team
Blake Wright, 2B, Clemson
Alex Stone, C, Duke*
Cam Smith, 3B, Florida State
Matthew Ellis, DH/UT, Georgia Tech
Payton Green, SS, Georgia Tech
Evan Webster, SP, Louisville
Daniel Cuvet, 3B, Miami*
Jason DeCaro, SP, North Carolina
Parks Harber, 1B, North Carolina
Shea Sprague, SP, North Carolina
Alex Makarewicz, 3B, NC State*
Phil Fox, RP, Pittsburgh
Harrison Didawick, OF, Virginia
Jacob Ference, C, Virginia
Casey Saucke, OF, Virginia
Ben Watson, OF, Virginia Tech
Third Team
John West, SP, Boston College*
Cam Cannarella, OF, Clemson
AJ Gracia, OF, Duke
Marco Dinges, DH/UT, Florida State
Jaime Ferrer, OF, Florida State
Gavin Kilen, SS, Louisville
Matthew Mattthijs, RP, North Carolina*
Dalton Pence, RP, North Carolina
Luke Stevenson, C, North Carolina
Sam Highfill, SP, NC State
Garrett Pennington, 1B, NC State
Evan Blanco, SP, Virginia
Henry Godbout, 2B, Virginia
Chris Cannizzaro, OF, Virginia Tech
Brett Renfrow, SP, Virginia Tech
Marek Houston, SS, Wake Forest*
Seaver King, 3B, Wake Forest
*Designates At-Large Selection
% 17 players on the Third Team due to a tie in the voting
All-ACC Freshman Team
Aidan Knaak, SP, Clemson
AJ Gracia, OF, Duke
Kyle Johnson, OF/SP, Duke
Drew Burress, OF, Georgia Tech
Zion Rose, C, Louisville
Daniel Cuvet, 3B, Miami
Jason DeCaro, SP, North Carolina
Gavin Gallaher, 3B, North Carolina
Luke Stevenson, C, North Carolina
Jacob Dudan, RP, NC State
Eric Becker, INF, Virginia
Henry Ford, 1B, Virginia
Brett Renfrow, SP, Virginia Tech