Junior only East Region finalist

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RINDGE, N.H. (May 22, 2013) – Junior right-hander Trevor Graham (Sebastian, Fla.) of the Franklin Pierce University baseball team has been named a finalist for the College Baseball Lineup Tino Martinez Division II Baseball Player of the Year Award, as announced Wednesday by College Baseball Lineup. He is the only finalist from the East Region and one of 10 finalists nationally.

It is the fourth year of the Tino Award, and the Ravens have had at least one finalist in three of the four years, with Jose Macias and Ryan Thompson advancing to the final round of voting in 2010 and 2011, respectively. In addition, Zach Mathieu was named a semifinalist a year ago. It is the fourth straight season in which a Northeast-10 Conference pitcher has been named a finalist, as Southern New Hampshire's Tim Flight advanced to the final ballot a year ago. Nathan Minnich of Shepherd won last year's edition of the award.

Graham, who was named as one of 11 finalists for College Baseball Lineup's inaugural Josh Willingham Award on Tuesday, is the only player in the country to reach the final ballot of both awards.

The Daktronics East Region and Northeast-10 Conference Pitcher of the Year selection, Graham has been nothing short of dominant for the Ravens in his first season in Rindge after transferring in from Florida Tech. With a flock of professional scouts on-hand at every start, Graham leads a pitching staff which ranks first in the NCAA (through last weekend's regional tournaments) in both strikeouts per nine innings (9.2) and hits allowed per nine innings (6.91) by ranking among the top 50 pitchers in the nation in ERA (1.76), strikeouts per nine innings (10.03), strikeouts (114), hits allowed per nine innings (5.98), strikeout-to-walk ratio (6.33), WHIP (0.84) and wins (9). The most impressive of those numbers among his peers are strikeouts, WHIP and hits allowed per nine innings, as he ranks among the top five in the country in all three. In addition, through the East Regional, he is in the top 10 in the Northeast-10 in innings pitched (102.1), strikeouts, strikeouts per nine innings, ERA and wins. Overall, in his 102.1 innings, he has allowed 28 runs (20 earned) on 69 hits and 18 walks to post a 9-2 record and hold opponents to a .191 batting average.

Already this spring, Graham has been named as an All-East Region First Team selection by both Daktronics and the NCBWA, and was also named to the All-Northeast-10 First Team.

The final ballot for the Tino Martinez Division II Baseball Player of the Year Award consists of 10 players from across the country, including three who are on teams headed to North Carolina for the National Finals. The final ballot was determined by a panel of sports information personnel, coaches, media members and former players, who voted to trim down the group from a 40-player semifinalist ballot. From here, the panel will vote again, and the results will be combined with a fan vote via the Internet to determine the winner. The winner will be announced in the aftermath of the national title game, which is scheduled for Saturday, June 1.

The award is named for Tino Martinez, who, despite being drafted in the third round by the Boston Red Sox in 1985, opted to attend the University of Tampa. While playing for his hometown Spartans, Martinez was a three-time All-American, an Academic All-American and still holds a number of school records, including career home runs (54), career batting average (.399), career slugging percentage (.736), single season batting average (.452) and single season slugging percentage (.957). Current Louisiana State head coach Paul Mainieri has been quoted as stating Martinez was, "the best player I've ever coached against."

College Baseball Lineup is one of the premier online news sources for college baseball and one of few outlets to devote full national coverage to the sport at the Division II level. Franklin Pierce has been a fixture in the site's Division II Top-30 Rankings over the last several years. The Ravens were 25th in the final regular season edition of the rankings.

The East Region champion Ravens (36-17) open pursuit of their first national title on Saturday afternoon against Shippensburg, the Atlantic Region champion. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m. at USA Baseball National Training Complex in Cary, N.C.

For more information on Franklin Pierce Athletics, please visit the official website of Franklin Pierce Athletics (http://athletics.franklinpierce.edu). Also be sure to follow the Ravens through the Department of Athletics' official Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/FranklinPierceRavens), its YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/franklinpiercesports) and its Twitter feed (http://twitter.com/FPUathletics). Fans wishing to purchase Franklin Pierce baseball apparel can do so at the Department of Athletics' online store (http://athletics.franklinpierce.edu/store).