NORFOLK, Va. -- Former Old Dominion shortstop Zach Rutherford has been selected as the Amateur Player of the Year by the Mid Atlantic Baseball Scouts Association.
The criteria for this award is performance on the field and cooperation with scouts. All high school and college players in the Mid Atlantic states are eligible.
Rutherford, who was selected in the sixth round by the Tampa Bay Rays of the 2017 MLB Draft, has played this summer for the Princeton Rays of the Appalachian League in rookie ball. The Chesapeake native is hitting .260 with seven home runs and 35 RBIs in 49 games. Over the last nine games, Rutherford is hitting .329 with eight RBIs and has increased his batting average by 13 points during that span.
The 2017 Conference USA Defensive Player of the Year has also excelled in the field. The shortstop owns a fielding percentage of .977 and has committed just five errors in 47 games.
In MLB Pipeline's most recent rankings of the Rays' top 30 prospects, Rutherford came in at 27th.
This past spring, Rutherford put the finishing touches on his ODU career during his junior season. He was named a Third Team All-American by ABCA/Rawlings and was a finalist for the Brooks Wallace Award, after hitting .332 with 25 doubles and 56 RBIs. He also set an ODU single-season record for shortstops with a .982 fielding percentage.
Rutherford will be honored at the association's annual banquet to be held on Saturday, Nov. 11, at Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen, Maryland.
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