AUBURN, Ala. – Junior outfielder Ike Irish becomes the seventh consensus All-American in program history as he was named First Team All-America by D1 Baseball Thursday.
The All-America recognition is the fifth for Irish, who has already earned first-team honors from the American Baseball Coaches Association, Baseball America, College Baseball Foundation and Perfect Game. Irish joins Frank Thomas (1989), Tim Hudson (1999), Todd Faulkner (2000), Gabe Gross (2000), Casey Mize (2018) and Sonny DiChiara (2022) on the list of consensus All-Americans in program history.
The Hudsonville, Michigan, native led the team in multiple offensive categories including average (.364), on-base percentage (.469), slugging percentage (.710), runs (65), hits (78), home runs (19) and total bases (152) while ranking second in RBI (58) and third in stolen bases (11).
He finished the conference season ranked second in the league in average (.398), on-base percentage (.480), slugging percentage (.852), home runs (13) and total bases (92). Despite missing the first weekend of the SEC season, he also ranked top five in runs (38) and hits (43). Irish’s 13 home runs in SEC play were the most by an Auburn player since Josh Etheredge also hit 13 home runs in 1997, and 12 of his home runs came on the road.
In his three-year career, Irish hit .350 and reached base at a .435 clip while totaling 223 hits, 48 doubles, 39 home runs and 167 RBI. He is the fifth player in program history to amass at least 200 hits, 45 doubles, 35 home runs and 150 RBI – joining Frank Thomas (1987-89), Josh Etheredge (1995-98), Todd Faulkner (1998-2001) and Gabe Gross (1999-2001) on the list.