Mississippi State senior right fielder Tanner Allen was named the Southeastern Conference player of the year Monday afternoon, the league office announced.
Allen leads the conference in batting average at .387 and is near the top in on-base percentage (.460), slugging percentage (.618), hits (79) and runs (54). He was also named first-team all-SEC.
Brent Rooker in 2017 was the most recent Mississippi State player to be named SEC player of the year.
He has helped lead the Bulldogs to a 40-13 regular-season record and the No. 3 seed in the SEC tournament, which begins Tuesday. The Bulldogs’ first game will be at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday against either No. 6 Florida or No. 11 Kentucky.
Allen wasn’t the only Mississippi State player to earn SEC accolades Monday.
Center fielder Rowdey Jordan and reliever Landon Sims were named to the all-SEC second team. Jordan is hitting .315 and slugging .550 with nine home runs and 38 RBIs, while Sims owns a 0.49 ERA and 73 strikeouts in 37 innings.
Sims, starting pitcher Will Bednar and catcher Logan Tanner made the Newcomer All-SEC team. Bednar has a 2.90 ERA in 62 innings with 97 strikeouts, Tanner is hitting .286 with 11 home runs and 40 RBIs.
Bednar was named the SEC’s newcomer of the week after going eight shutout innings Friday in the Bulldogs’ 7-0 win over Alabama.
Allen wins Ferriss Trophy
The conference’s top honor wasn’t the only accolade Allen received Monday.
Less than two hours prior, the outfielder won the Boo Ferriss Trophy, given out by C Spire and the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame to honor the top college baseball player in the state.
Allen won the fan vote, which is factored into the award, with 48.8 percent of the votes cast. He and Sims combined to earn 65 percent of the fan vote.
Allen is the second straight Mississippi State player to win the Ferriss Trophy after Jake Mangum did so in 2019.
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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