Georgia’s Charlie Condon, the national home run and batting leader, wins Golden Spikes Award

CARY, N.C. (AP) — Georgia’s Charlie Condon was selected the winner of the Golden Spikes Award on Saturday as the country’s top amateur baseball player.

Condon, who last week won the Dick Howser Trophy as college baseball’s national player of the year, sits atop the NCAA leaderboard in most major offensive categories. His 37 home runs were the most since Lance Berkman hit 41 for Rice in 1997. He also led the nation in batting average (.433), slugging percentage (1.009), total bases (233) and OPS (1.565).

The Southeastern Conference player of the year also ranked in the top six nationally in on-base percentage (.556) and runs scored (84).

Condon was the fifth Golden Spikes finalist in Georgia program history and the school’s first winner. He’s the 11th winner from the Southeastern Conference, most of any conference.

Condon had seven games with two or more homers and he went deep in eight straight games from April 26 to May 9.

His 37 homers were three behind the SEC record, and he is tied for fifth all-time in the conference with 62 career homers in two seasons.

Condon was selected through voting of national baseball media, select professional baseball personnel and USA Baseball staff, and the previous winners of the award. Fan voting contributed to the voting total.

Arkansas pitcher Hagen Smith and Oregon State second baseman Travis Bazzana were the other finalists.

LSU outfielder Dylan Crews won the Golden Spikes Award last year and was the No. 2 overall pick by Washington in the amateur draft.

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AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports

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