Junior catcher Matt Canepa and senior first baseman/right fielder Jimmy Van Ostrand have been named to the 2006 All-Big West Conference first team.
Junior third baseman Josh Lansford landed a spot on the second team while sophomore center fielder Grant Desme was accorded honorable mention honors.
Cal Poly finished 29-27 overall, its third straight winning season under head coach Larry Lee, and 10-11 for fourth place in the Big West.
Canepa was Cal Poly’s second-best hitter with a .326 average, including a 5-for-5 performance against Cal State Northridge on April 14, Cal Poly’s first five-hit game in three years. The transfer from College of San Mateo collected seven doubles and one home run, finishing third on the team in RBIs with 35.
Canepa produced 15 multiple-hit games and had nine- and seven-game hitting streaks this season. He also threw out 17 would-be base stealers in 44 attempts (38.6 percent).
Van Ostrand led the Mustangs in home runs (13) and RBIs (49) en route to a .297 batting average. A transfer from Hancock College in 2004, Van Ostrand hit four home runs and drove in 11 runs in a three-game series at Washington in mid-March, earning Big West and national player of the week honors.
Van Ostrand finished the season with a nine-game hitting streak and 18 multiple-ht games. He started all 56 games and had six games with four or more RBIs this season. A year ago the Richmond, B.C., native hit .345 with four home runs and 25 RBIs.
Lansford was Cal Poly’s top hitter with a .353 average and produced the Mustangs’ longest hitting streak of the season at 16 games. His totals for the season include 12 doubles, three triples and seven home runs. He also led the team in multiple-hit games with 26.
Desme hit .287 with 12 doubles, a triple and eight home runs in his first season with the Mustangs after transferring from San Diego State. He hit two home runs in both the Fresno State and Cal State Northridge series and stole eight of 10 bases. Desme also had the second-longest hitting streak of the season for Cal Poly at 13 games.
Cal State Fullerton, the 2006 Big West champion, claimed the top three honors in the Big West Conference with sophomore right-hander Wes Roemer receiving the nod for Big West Pitcher of the Year, head coach George Horton nabbing Big West Coach of the Year honors and senior second baseman Justin Turner sharing Big West Co-Player of the Year with Evan Longoria of Long Beach State.
Also earning All-Big West accolades were freshmen Danny Espinosa of Long Beach State and Scott Gorgen of UC Irvine. Espinosa received Big West Freshman Player of the Year honors, while Gorgen’s performance on the mound earned him Big West Freshman Pitcher of the Year.
Cal State Fullerton landed seven players on the first team while runner-up Long Beach State placed two players on the mythical squad. Cal Poly and UC Riverside also had two players honored and Pacific and UC Santa Barbara one each.