Cal first baseman Andrew Vaughn wins Golden Spikes Award

LOS ANGELES (AP) — First baseman Andrew Vaughn has won USA Baseball’s Golden Spikes Award as the top amateur baseball player, the first University of California player to earn the honor.

Vaughn earned the 2018 Pac-12 Player of the Year award, hitting .402 in his sophomore season with 14 doubles, a school-recording tying 23 homers and 63 RBIs.

He is the eighth player from the conference to win the award after Bob Horner (1978), Terry Francona (1980), Oddibe McDowell (1984), Mike Kelly (1991), Mark Prior (2001), Tim Lincecum (2006) and Trevor Bauer (2011).

The other finalists for the award, announced Thursday, were Texas infielder Kody Clemens, Auburn right-hander Casey Mize and Florida right-hander Brady Singer.

About 200 people cast ballots among national baseball media, select professional baseball personnel, previous winners and select USA Baseball staff. Those votes counted for 95 percent of the total, with fan balloting accounting for the remainder.

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