SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. -- Matt Adams, a junior catcher on the Slippery Rock University baseball team, was named Monday as the Daktronics, Inc. national Player of the Year in voting by NCAA Division II sports information directors.

Adams led the nation in hitting this spring with a school-record .495 batting average. He also ranked fifth nationally in on base percentage with a .566 mark, eighth in both slugging percentage (.853) and total doubles (24), ninth in doubles per game (0.47), 10th in total hits (91) and 12th in total bases (157).

The Philipsburg native and Philipsburg-Osceola High School graduate also ranked in the top 50 nationally in six other statistical categories: runs per game (1.25, 34th), total runs (64, 35th), runs batted in per game (1.25, 37th), runs batted in (64, 40th), total home runs (14, 48th) and home runs per game (0.27, 49th).

Prior to being named as the national Player of the Year, Adams earned regional Player of the Year honors from Daktronics, the American Baseball Coaches Association and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association. He was also selected by the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference-Western Division head coaches as the division's Player of the Year.

The first-team All-America honor that went along with Adams' selection as the nation's top player Adams completed an ascent up the national honors list. He earned third-team NCBWA All-America status as a freshman in 2007 and was a second-team NCBWA All-America selection in 2008, as well as being named to honorable mention ABCA All-America status.

Adams is also the proud recipient of three straight all-region citations from the ABCA, Daktronics and the NCBWA and earned All-PSAC-West first-team honors in each of his three collegiate seasons. He was the PSAC-West Rookie of the Year in 2007..

In addition to his batting average school record, Adams also set a new school record for single-season slugging percentage (old mark: .807 by Brad Lowe, 1998) and tied the SRU single-season records for hits (91 by Joe Neidrick, 2003) and doubles (24, Adams, 2007).

He is expected to be selected in the Major League Baseball draft in early June. If he signs a professional contract and does not return to SRU for his senior season, he will also depart with the school's career batting average and slugging percentage records. His current career batting average of .454 is 51 points higher than the exisiting mark of .403 set by Sal Agostinelli (19981-83). His career slugging percentage of .749 is over 100 points higher than the current mark of .640 held by John Samsa (1981-83). 

Behind Adams' lead, The Rock compiled a 36-15 final record and finished third in the PSAC-West standings this spring.