For the second year in a row, Cal Poly second baseman Matt Jensen has been invited to the USA Baseball team trials.
After accepting the invitation a year ago, Jensen fractured his collarbone in a game against San Francisco in early May and was unable to participate in the trials.
The final roster for Team USA will be announced in mid-July and the squad will compete in the V FISU World University Championships in Japan as well as friendship series against Korea in North Carolina at the USA Baseball Complex in Cary and at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park in Durham.
Jensen became the first Mustang baseball player to be invited to National Team Trials in his first season at Cal Poly.
“Matt is one of the better ball players in the country,” Cal Poly head coach Larry Lee said. “He should be able to follow up a tremendous freshman year with another quality season and is fully recovered from his broken collarbone.
Jensen had a .375 batting average with 15 doubles, nine home runs and 53 RBI before fracturing his clavicle in May 2009. The Clovis East High School graduate, now a sophomore, started 41 of Cal Poly’s 42 games last season before he was injured. The Mustangs were 30-15 with Jensen in the line-up and went 7-6 in the thirteen games he missed due to his injury.
“He’s really developed as a defensive second baseman to add to his already impressive credentials from an offensive standpoint,” Lee said. “Having the opportunity to represent the United States in this endeavor is a great honor and Matt is as good as it gets on and off the field. He will represent Cal Poly at the highest level this summer.”
Jensen earned numerous postseason honors at the end of his first year as a mustang. He landed a spot on the 2009 American Baseball Coaches Association/Rawlings Sporting Goods Division I West Region First Team, Baseball America¹s Freshman All-American First Team, Collegiate Baseball Newspapers 2009 Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American Team and the 2009 Pro-Line Athletic/National College Baseball Writers Association Division I Freshman All-American First Team.
Jensen was named to the 2009 All-Big West Conference first team and, despite missing the last three weeks of the regular season, was named Big West Freshman Player of the Year.
Jensen had a 23-game hitting streak, the third longest in Cal Poly Division I history, before it was snapped by UC Santa Barbara on April 24. He was 35-for-89 (.393) during the streak with 24 RBI and produced six consecutive two-hit games during the streak.
Prior to the injury, Jensen had 17 multiple-hit games this season and 13 multiple-RBI contests. He was 6-for-13 in the UC Irvine series, 7-for-13 in the Houston series, 8-for-12 in the Cal State Bakersfield series and 5-for-12 in the Pacific series with three doubles and two homers.
In that four-game Cal State Bakersfield series, Jensen reached base 16 times in 19 plate appearances. He was drafted in the 11th round by the Seattle Mariners in June 2008, but elected to continue his baseball career at Cal Poly.
Bill Kinneberg, head coach of Utah, will manage Team USA with assistance from Nino Giarratano, head coach of San Francisco, Ed Blankmeyer, head coach of St. John’s, and Dave Serrano head coach of Cal State Fullerton.