John Cole

2001 First-Team Verizon/CoSIDA Academic All-American
2001 First-Team All-American (ABCA)
2001 Third-Team All-American (Collegiate Baseball)
2001 First-team ABCA All-Midwest Region
2001 Baseball America All-Regional Team
2001 Big 12 All-Tournament Team
2001 All-Big 12 First-Team (Coaches)
2001 First-Team Academic All-District VII
2001 First-Team Academic All-Big 12

John Cole wrapped up his three-year career by earning first-team All-America honors from the American Baseball Coaches Association...was chosen in the fifth round by the Seattle Mariners in the 2001 MLB First-Year Player Draft...wrapped up his career ranked on NU career top-10 lists in career batting average (.380, sixth), hits (222, sixth) and stolen bases (59, ninth)...also earned second team honors from the Sporting News and third-team accolades from Collegiate Baseball in 2001...was a first-team All-Big 12 choice from the league coaches while splitting time between second base and outfield in 2001...a first-team Academic All- American who carries a 3.58 GPA in business administration (the 100th firstteam Academic All-American in NU history), Cole was one of two baseball players in school history to earn All-America and Academic All-America honors in the same season (Gene Stohs, who earned first-team honors in both categories in 1972, was the other...finished 2001 with a .418 batting average, becoming just the ninth player to hit .400 or better in a season and was just the fifth player to collect 100 hits in a season as a junior...led NU in average, hits, mutli-hit games (32) and stolen bases (28) while finishing second on the in runs (68) and third in both homersand RBIs...hit .383 (23-for-60) with four homers and six stolen bases in 15 career NCAA Tournament games, including a 4-for-9 effort with two homers and three runs scored in the 2001 College World Series...collected his third career two-homer game in the CWS opener against Cal State Fullerton on June 8...went 3-for-9 with four RBIs against Rice in the 2001 Super Regional, including a three-RBI performance in game one...was selected to the Lincoln Regional All-Tournament team after hitting .467 (7-for-15) with two homers, five RBIs, six runs scored  and a pair of stolen bases over, earning him All-Regional accolades from Baseball America...entered the Big 12 Conference Tournament with a career-long 20-game hitting streak, the longest by a Nebraska player in three seasons and fifth-longest in school history, before having it snapped in the first game of the tournament against Iowa State on May 16...hit .488 (41-for-84) with 28 runs scored, 22 RBIs and seven stolen bases during the streak and enters the CWS with an eight-game streak...hitting .733 (11-for-15) with a pair of sacrifices from the ninth inning on this season...earned All-Big 12 Tournament honors, batting .533 (8-for-15) with six runs scored and two RBIs in the final three tourney games to earn all-tournament honors...has been instrumental in the Huskers’ three straight tournament titles, batting .447 (21-of-47) with 12 runs scored in 12 career Big 12 Tournament contests....can hit anywhere from leadoff to sixth in the lineup and is hitting a team-best .494 against left-handers...went 39 straight games without an error (from Feb. 10-April 24) and has committed six errors in 2001...although Cole made his name on offense, he is an outstanding defensive player who is capable of making gems anywhere on the field...has been clocked at 6.59 in the 60-yard dash and has a 38 1/2 inch vertical leap...his leaping catch with two outs in the top of the ninth against Baylor in the 1999 Big 12 title game has been cited by Coach Van Horn as the turning point of the Husker baseball program...set an NU freshman record with a .396 average in 1999, helping Nebraska to its first postseason appearance since 1985.

Career Statistics

Year avg gp-gs ab r h 2b 3b hr rbi bb so sb-att1999.... .396 49-31 144 48 57 3 3 7 46 11 18 15-152000.... .323 54-51 201 41 65 11 2 2 38 18 27 16-202001.... .418 63-56 239 71 100 15 4 11 61 20 26 28-30TOTAL... .380 166-138 584 160 222 29 9 20 145 49 71 59-65