GREENSBORO, N.C. – Carson-Newman freshman starting pitcher Kolton Casson is a consensus All-American. The American Baseball Coaches Association selected him as a second team All-American starting pitcher on Friday morning.
Casson completes the trifecta for All-American honors, being named a second team All-American by all three major organizations, NCBWA, D2CCA and now the ABCA. Casson is the program’s 25th All-American across both the NAIA and NCAA eras. The freshman right-hander is the eighth individual in the school’s NCAA era to earn All-American honors, the fifth pitcher and first since Brayden Coe in 2021. Across both eras, Casson is the eighth pitcher to be named an All-American. The right-hander became the fourth player coached by Tom Griffin to be lauded an All-American for his efforts on the field.
The ABCA/Rawlings All-America teams are selected by members of the ABCA All-America committees. ABCA/Rawlings All-Region First Team selections, which were announced Wednesday, were eligible for All-America honors.
Casson is one of 11 players in the Southeast Region and one of six from the South Atlantic Conference to be recognized on any of the three All-American teams.
Casson completed the sweep of all-region accolades, being named a first team all-region starting pitcher by the ABCA, D2CCA and NCBWA. His first Pitcher of the Year award was from the South Atlantic Conference, with his latest having been named Southeast Region Pitcher of the Year by the ABCA and D2CCA.
Along with those regional and national honors, Casson was a two-time SAC pitcher of the week and TSWA pitcher of the week during the season. He earned All-SAC first team honors and was named the conference’s freshman and pitcher of the year in the same season, becoming the first ever individual in the South Atlantic Conference to garner two individual awards in one season.
As a freshman, the Benton, Tenn. native had a 2.35 earned run average in 95.2 innings of work. His ERA is the sixth lowest in a season in program history and second lowest by a C-N starting pitcher. Those 95.2 innings are the sixth-most in a single-season in program history. The innings came across 15 starts, tied for the fifth-most in one season in C-N baseball history.
In his 15 starts, Casson was 13-1, including wins in his first 11 starts of his collegiate career. The 13 wins are tied for the most wins in a single season in school history and are the most in DII this year.
Casson had six complete games as a rookie, tied for the second-most in program history. He went the distance in three straight outings, with two of those performances being 12 and 13 strikeout efforts, one of which came against #7 Lenoir-Rhyne on April 12.
Casson had six straight starts in which he allowed one run or less. In the month of March, he made five starts and won them all while also posting a 0.84 ERA. 12 of his 15 starts were quality starts (6IP with 3 ER or less). He posted at least six strikeouts in eight of his 15 outings.
Despite letting a lead-off batter reach at a .371 clip on the year, opponents hit .199 with runners on base, .187 with two outs and .212 as a right-handed batter. He did not yield more than eight hits in any game on the year and pitched at least seven innings in more than half of his starts.