ECU’S Connor Norby named to midseason Golden Spikes watch list

GREENVILLE, N.C. (WITN) - East Carolina sophomore Connor Norby is one of 45 players named to the midseason Golden Spikes Award watch list, moving closer to naming the top amateur baseball player (high school or college) in the country USA Baseball announced Wednesday.

Norby becomes the fifth Pirate and first positional player in program history to be named to the midseason list following Jeff Hoffman (2013), Evan Kruczynski (2016), Chris Holba (2018) and Jake Agnos (2019). ECU has had four players named to the preseason watch list in Kyle Roller (2010), Jeff Hoffman (2014), Bryant Packard (2019) and Alec Burleson (2020), while Corey Kemp is the lone Pirate to be named a semifinalist in 2008.

The Kernersville, N.C. native leads the Pirates and American Athletic Conference in batting average (.442), hits (57), on-base percentage (.482) and total bases (92). He also stands as the team leader in doubles (eight), runs (31), slugging percentage (.713) and stolen bases (eight), while ranking second in home runs (nine) and RBI (31). On a national scale, Norby is second in hits, third in total bases, fifth in hits per game (1.84), seventh in batting average and 29th in home runs.

Heading into this weekend’s series at Houston, Norby is currently riding an 18-game hitting streak and has reached base in 38 consecutive contests dating back to the 2020 season. He has registered at least one hit in 30 of 31 games thus far, leads the program with 19 multi-hit and eight multi-RBI games and has scored at least one run in 23 contests (multiple seven times).

USA Baseball will announce the semifinalists on June 8 and its finalists on June 24. Fan voting will once again be a part of the Golden Spikes Award in 2021. Beginning with the semifinalist announcement and continuing through the finalist round voting deadline, fans from across the country will be able to vote for their favorite player on GoldenSpikesAward.com. The winner of the 43rd Golden Spikes Award will be named in July.

The 2021 Golden Spikes Award timeline:

June 8: USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award semifinalists announced, voting begins
June 15: USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award semifinalists voting ends
June 24: USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award finalists announced, voting begins
July 2: USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award finalists voting ends
July: USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award trophy presentation

No. 9 ECU (26-5, 8-0 AAC) will be back in action on Friday, April 16 when it travels to Houston (13-18, 1-7 AAC) for a four-game American series. First pitch of the doubleheader Friday is scheduled for 3 p.m. (ET) and will be streamed on ESPN+