FORT WORTH, Texas – East Carolina All-American Connor Norby was set to receive the 2021 Bobby Bragan Collegiate Slugger Award (BBCSA) tonight at the Annual Awards Gala, which will be held at the Fort Worth Club.

Norby, who was named to six All-America Teams following his sophomore season, closed out a remarkable season batting .415 with a nation’s best 102 hits to go along with 15 doubles, 15 home runs, 51 RBI and scored 64 runs. He collected at least one hit in 53 of 61 games (multiple 33 times) and plated at least one run in 27 contests (multiple on 12 occasions) – both leading the team.

The Kernersville, N.C. native ranked among the NCAA leaders in hits per game (1.67/sixth), batting average (eighth) and runs scored (14th). Norby, a second-round selection in the 2021 Major League Baseball Draft by the Baltimore Orioles, took home a plethora of awards including American Athletic Conference Player-of-the-Year honors, First-Team All-AAC, AAC All-Tournament Team, All-Greenville Regional Team, National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Regional Player-of-the-Year and along with Gavin Williams was one of two Pirates in 2021 to be named a semifinalist for both the Dick Howser and Golden Spikes Awards.

Norby along with eighth-year head coach Cliff Godwin will be on hand at the Fort Worth Club to receive the fourth installment of the award. Other past winners include Hunter Hargrove (Texas Tech/2017), Devlin Granberg (Dallas Baptist/2018) and Josh Jung (Texas Tech/2019). Last year the BBCSA had no winner due to the COVID-19 virus which cut short the college baseball season. This year marked the first-time nominations were opened to all 300 Division I schools (not just the state of Texas).

Bobby Bragan, former major league baseball player, manager, and coach, established the Bobby Bragan Youth Foundation in 1991 as an effort to encourage children to stay in school and pursue their educational and career dreams. The Bobby Bragan Youth Foundation annually honors the most outstanding offensive baseball player on a Division I team in the Country, based on personal integrity, athletic performance and academic achievement. The annual award benefits the Bobby Bragan Youth Foundation Scholarship program that has provided the promise of over 800 college scholarships worth more than $2.0 million for eighth graders in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex over the past 30 years.

For more information about the BBCSA presented by SR Bats, fans can visit www.braganslugger.com.