WASHINGTON – Saint Joseph's sophomore catcher Blake Primrose was named the Atlantic 10 Baseball Player of the Year on Tuesday afternoon, while head coach Fritz Hamburg was tabbed as the league's Coach of the Year for the third time.
 
Primrose was also named to the All-Conference First Team alongside senior starting pitcher Cole Fehrman and sophomore center fielder Alex Kelsey; senior relief pitcher Andrew Gaines was tabbed for the Second Team, while Matt Fitzgibbon was named to the All-Academic Team.
 
Primrose leads the conference in batting average, runs scored, home runs, slugging percentage, on-base percentage, and OPS and ranks second in runs batted in and fifth in hits.  He also leads the league in all three triple crown categories – batting average, home runs, and RBI – in conference play.  On Monday, he was named one of 16 semifinalists for the Buster Posey National Collegiate Catcher of the Year Award.
 
The Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, native was named the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association's National Hitter of the Month for April and is a three-time Atlantic 10 Player of the Week; he was also named to the Baseball America Team of the Week on April 14.  Primrose has set new program single-season records for home runs, runs scored, and runs batted in this season and ranks among the top 12 in Division I in batting average, home runs, runs scored, and runs batted in.  Behind the plate, he has thrown out 17 runners trying to steal, cutting down more than 20% of all attempts this season.
 
Primrose is the third Hawk to earn Atlantic 10 Player of the Year honors after Collin Forgey in 2014 and Deon Stafford, Jr., in 2016.
 
Fehrman leads the Hawks in innings and strikeouts this season, ranking second in the Atlantic 10 in strikeouts overall and topping the league in conference games; he also ranks in the top six in the league in earned run average during conference play.  The Doylestown, Pa., native has posted a better than 3-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio for the season that improved to 3.7-to-1 in conference play and holds a strikeouts-per-nine ratio of 11.9 overall and 12.5 in league games.  Fehrman was a two-time Atlantic 10 Pitcher of the Week, winning the award after he took a no-hitter into the ninth at Fordham on March 28 and again after he tossed eight shutout innings against St. Bonaventure on May 2.  He recorded double-digit strikeouts on three occasions, all in conference games, including 13 in the win over the Bonnies on May 2.
 
Hailing from Reading, Pa., Kelsey has appeared in every game for the Hawks and ranks in the top five in the league in batting average, hit by pitches, and on-base percentage and in the top 10 in runs scored and hits.  He also sits among the league leaders in average, OBP, runs scored, hit by pitches, and stolen bases in conference play.  In addition, Kelsey ranks among the team leaders in slugging, doubles, triples, walks, and stolen bases as well.  He recorded multiple hits in 23 games, including a five-hit game against West Chester, and reached base in 27 consecutive games at one point.
 
Gaines leads the Atlantic 10 in saves with 10, tying the school single-season record, while leading the Hawks in pitching appearances.  He has posted a better than 4-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio that jumped past 5-to-1 in league play, and he has struck out 13.9 batters per nine innings.  The Marlton, New Jersey, product has held batters to a .187 average overall and a .170 average in conference play.  After starting the season with nine consecutive scoreless outings, Gaines was named to the NCBWA Stopper of the Year watch list.
 
Fitzgibbon posted a team-leading 1.69 ERA and struck out 15 hitters in 10.2 innings in conference games as a top relief option for the Hawks.  The Yonkers, New York, native also tied for fifth on the team in appearances out of the bullpen.  He struck out seven in three innings of one-hit relief to earn the win at High Point on February 14 and fanned five in two innings at La Salle on April 26.
 
Hamburg was named the league's top skipper for the third time (2014, 2023), matching five other coaches for the most in conference history.  On March 15, he recorded his 400th win on Hawk Hill, making him one of four coaches in Saint Joseph's history to reach the 400-win plateau.  Hamburg has guided the Hawks to 35 wins this season, tying the program record, and on May 3, Saint Joseph's clinched the program's second-ever regular season Atlantic 10 title and its second in four seasons.  Under his guidance, the Hawks qualified for the Atlantic 10 Championship for the sixth consecutive season, the longest active postseason streak in the conference.
 
The top-seeded Hawks will open Atlantic 10 Championship play on Thursday at 11:00 a.m. against the winner of Wednesday's game between fourth-seeded George Mason and fifth-seeded Rhode Island.