Jurries Earns Baseball America All-America Honors
Jun 19, 2002 | Baseball
June 19, 2002
The list of postseason honors garnered by Tulane University senior infielder James Jurries continued to grow Wednesday as the native of Lake Jackson, Texas, was named third-team All-American by Baseball America.
Jurries, who has also been named 2002 Conference USA Player of the year, first-team All-CUSA, first-team All-Louisiana, second-team TPX/Louisville Slugger All-American, National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association second-team All-American, NCBWA District VII Co-Player of the Year and third-team Verizon Academic All-American, earned Baseball America recognition after becaming the first player to hit .400 since 1985 while also setting a new standard by hitting 20 home runs and stealing 30 bases.
A sixth-round selection of the Atlanta Braves in the 2002 Major League Baseball Amateur Draft, Jurries led Tulane in 2002 with 77 runs scored, 96 hits, four triples, 74 RBI, 180 total bases, a .750 slugging percentage, a .493 on-base percentage and 43 walks while tallying 16 doubles. Jurries also became the first player in the history of Tulane athletics to earn academic and athletic All-America honors in the same season, and is the first player in C-USA history to earn first-team all-league honors all four years.
He is one of just two players from a Louisiana school to make the Baseball America All-America squad, joining Southern's Rickie Weeks who was named the first-team designated hitter, and is one of four Conference USA players to earn the honor as Houston pitcher Brad Sullivan and utility athlete Jesse Crain earned first-team honors while Houston catcher Chris Snyder and East Carolina outfielder Darryl Lawhorn were named to the second-team.
During his final collegiate season, Jurries helped the Green Wave earn their fifth consecutive trip to the NCAA Regionals. His 96 hits in 2002 is tied for sixth in the Green Wave's single-season record book, and he is also third in total bases and slugging percentage, tied for fourth in batting average, seventh in stolen bases, eighth in runs scored and tied for eighth in triples.
In Tulane's career record book, Jurries tied the all-time runs record (284) while finishing second in hits (344) and home runs (62), fourth in games played (239), at-bats (953), RBI (257) and doubles (66), tied for fourth in triples (11), fifth in stolen bases (80), tied for fifth in batting average (.361), sixth in slugging percentage (.648), tied for sixth in assists (430), seventh in walks (145) and tied for seventh in sacrifice flies (13).
A success in the classroom as well, Jurries posted a 3.44 grade point average in the spring semester to raise his cumulative GPA to 3.32. The number increases to an impressive 3.77 mark in Tulane's prestigious A.B. Freeman School of Business. In the fall, Jurries earned Dean's List recognition with a 3.83 GPA in finance.
