Southern Miss baseball commit Tate Parker named junior college player of the year

David Eckert, Hattiesburg American
·2 min read

HATTIESBURG — After winning a national title with Pearl River Community College earlier this month, Southern Miss baseball commitment Tate Parker has continued to add individual awards.

On Monday, Rawlings and the American Baseball Coaches Association named Parker their NJCAA Division II Player of the Year.

The NJCAA followed with the same honor for the future Southern Miss outfielder on Tuesday.

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He concluded the 2022 season with a .450 batting average, 19 home runs and a 1.351 OPS.

Over his two-year career, Parker hit .422 with a .507 OBP and 37 home runs, driving home 130 runs in 100 career games.

He joins a Southern Miss team that boasted the second-best pitching staff in all of college baseball last season but at times struggled to score.

At 6.2 runs per game, the Golden Eagles finished with a below-average offensive output, ranking 159th out of 301 programs despite reaching the NCAA Tournament super regionals for the second time in program history.

Southern Miss returns the majority of its pitching for 2023, and will hope the addition of Parker helps the offense become more prolific.

"Tate can just flat out hit.," PRCC coach Michael Avalon said in a school release. "Over the past two years, Tate led one of the toughest conferences in the country in average, home runs and RBIs. Not only did he excel at the plate, he was elite in all facets of his game. He played phenomenal defense in center field and made an impact running the bases. He's a true five-tool player.

Reach Southern Miss writer David Eckert at deckert@gannett.com or on Twitter @davideckert98.

This article originally appeared on Hattiesburg American: Southern Miss baseball commitment Tate Parker claims juco player of the year