AZUSA, Calif. -- The junior slugging tandem of Brice Cutspec and Ryan Delgado, the only teammates from any collegiate baseball program at any level this season to each hit at least 25 home runs, were named to the NAIA All-American baseball team.

Cutspec, the 2009 Golden State Athletic Conference Player of the Year, was 1 of just 2 GSAC players named to the first team, while Delgado was 1 of 4 more from the conference who earned honorable mention. The pair accounted for 2 of the GSAC’s 6 All-American selections.

Cutspec shattered Azusa Pacific’s single-season and career home run records this season, becoming the first Cougar ever to crack the 30-homer plateau. He was also 1 of just 3 collegians this season to hit at least 30 home runs, joining NAIA Player of the Year Brent Weaver from Oklahoma City University, who led the nation with 37, and junior-college slugger Randolph Oduber, a native of Aruba, who hit 32 home runs at Western Oklahoma State College.

Cutspec hit 3 of his home runs in the postseason, including a solo shot off Biola’s All-American first team closer Billy Vopinek in the GSAC Postseason Tournament. Cutspec finished the year with 183 total bases, just 8 shy of tying the Cougars’ single-season record of 191, and his .880 slugging percentage was just 9 points short of the program’s single-season mark of .889. He holds Azusa Pacific’s career marks for home runs (61) and RBIs (212), and his 465 career total bases sits just 6 shy of Stephen Vogt’s 4-year mark of 471.

Only 13 players at any level of collegiate baseball hit 25 home runs (4 were from NCAA Division I programs, 2 from NCAA Division II, 5 from NAIA, and 2 from junior colleges) this season. Azusa Pacific was the only college baseball program with 2 of them, as Delgado, the Cougars’ junior third baseman and catcher, went on a postseason tear after hitting 19 longballs in the regular season. He added 6 postseason bombs to reach the 25-homer mark.

Delgado led Azusa Pacific to a thrilling 9-8 walk-off win in an elimination game in the NAIA Baseball National Championship Opening Round tournament, drilling a 2-1 fastball from the All-American closer Vopinek over the fence to the deepest part of Azusa Pacific’s ballpark, the 410-foot straightaway center-field wall. In the victory, Delgado was 2-for-2 with 3 walks (2 of which were intentional), with 2 solo home runs. A week earlier against Biola, in the GSAC Tournament, Delgado had already hit 2 home runs and drove in 7 in an 11-10 defeat.

Senior pitcher Garrett Lebsock was named a 2009 Daktronics-NAIA Baseball Scholar Athlete, his third consecutive award in the national program that honors student-athletes of junior or above academic standing who have at least a 3.50 cumulative GPA.

The full NAIA All-American team can be viewed via the following link to www.naia.org.

The full list of 2009 Daktronics-NAIA Baseball Scholar Athletes can be viewed at the following link, also at www.naia.org.