Nebraska coach Will Bolt was quite upset that his catcher Josh Caron wasn’t named to any of the All-Big Ten Baseball teams.
The Big Ten champions go into the NCAA Tournament at 39-20 and will head to the Stillwater Regional to take on Florida Friday. Caron was a big part of the run to this point.
But, he didn’t receive any honors amongst the other top players in the conference.
“Yeah, I thought it was pretty ridiculous that he wasn’t at least named somewhere in there, right,” Bolt said. “I mean, they’ve got three teams now. That’s not to take anything away from the catchers there because the three counters that were honored were incredible. Their stats pop off the page, all three of them.
“But then you’ve got the utility, the DH, you know, there’s a way to slide guys (into) all conference teams that are deserving and you know, certainly the coaches are aware of (Bolt’s) presence. In fact, before the tournament started coach Mercer, I sat next to him in the coaches meeting when we first got to Omaha and he’s like, ‘man, Caron, that guy’s a dude isn’t he?’ I’m like yeah. Six home runs later he’s you know, he’s kind of taken on a totally different persona.”
This season, Caron is batting .309, has 19 RBI, 42 hits, 22 doubles, three triples and a .434 slugging percentage.
But it’s all water under the bridge for Caron. Bolt made sure to tell that to his star catcher and both are on the same page about winning it all for Nebraska.
“I said something to Josh. I said, ‘Hey, man, I’m sorry that your name wasn’t honored at all,” Bolt said. “‘I think it’s a travesty basically, that you weren’t honored by the league in some way, shape or form.’ And he goes, ‘Yeah, I have a little more of a chip on my shoulder for this week.’ But he says that with the most sincerity imaginable.
“He’s like, ‘You know what? I’m not in it for personal accolades. I want to win.’ He’s like, ‘I want to win this tournament. I want to win in the postseason,’ and he goes, ‘that’s far more important to me than personal accolades.’ And I was like, ‘yeah, that’s why you are who you are. And, you know, when you have that mindset, typically, you get paid back.’”
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