Allen named SEC player of the year as 5 Bulldogs earn SEC honors

STARKVILLE, Miss. — Mississippi State senior right fielder Tanner Allen was named the Southeastern Conference player of the year from the conference office on Monday.

The native of Theodore, Alabama, was also named first-team all-SEC.

Allen led the SEC with an overall batting average of .387 with 79 hits, 53 RBIs and 54 runs. He also led the conference with a .411 batting average, 51 hits and 34 RBIs in league play.

Allen was the only SEC student-athlete to rank among the top-10 in batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, runs scored, RBIs, hits and total bases in the regular season. He led the SEC with 16 games with multiple hits and 12 with multiple RBIs.

And the honors didn’t stop there. Allen was also awarded the 2021 C Spire Ferriss Trophy. The trophy is given out by C Spire and the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame to honor the top college baseball player in the state of Mississippi.

Finalists are chosen by the state’s college baseball coaches and a panel of Major League Baseball professional scouts, along with fan voting, which accounted for a weighted 10% of the award. Allen is the second consecutive MSU player to win the Ferriss Trophy after Jake Mangum did so in 2019.

Senior center fielder Rowdey Jordan and sophomore closer Landon Sims were selected to the all-SEC second team, while Sims, sophomore pitcher Will Bednar and sophomore catcher Logan Tanner made the SEC All-Newcomer team. The All-Newcomer list was formed for the 2021 season to honor players who played their first season during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jordan finished the regular season hitting .315 with 63 hits, 57 runs and 38 RBIs. He hit .333 with a SEC-leading 34 runs scored in conference play.

The native of Auburn, Alabama, ranked No. 4 in SEC play with a .469 on-base percentage, which included 39 hits, 19 walks and 11 times being hit by a pitch. He was also one of two SEC hitters to reach base safely in all 30 SEC games.

Sims made an appearance against Texas in the season opener and pitched four perfect innings of relief and 10 strikeouts. The native of Cumming, Georgia, finished the regular season with a .049 ERA, 0.72 WHIP and 73 strikeouts in 37 innings of work. He limited opposing hitters to a .120 batting average on his way to a 3-0 record and eight saves.

In SEC play, Sims made 12 appearances with a 0.36 ERA. He struck out 43 batters in 25 ¹⁄₃ innings of work. SEC hitters hit .108 against him and just one hit went for extra bases.

Bednar was 6-1 in 13 appearances (11 starts) this season. He owned a 2.90 ERA with 97 strikeouts in 62 innings of work. The native of Valencia, Pennsylvania, is closing in on becoming the 25th MSU pitcher to reach 100 strikeouts in a single season.

In SEC play, Bednar was part of two shutouts and owned a 3.27 ERA with 83 strikeouts in 55 innings pitched.

Tanner, a native of Lucedale, Mississippi, hit .286 overall with 54 hits, a team-high 11 home runs, 40 RBIs and 35 runs.

The Bulldogs are 40-13 and earned the No. 3 seed in the SEC Tournament, which begins Tuesday. The Bulldogs will open the tournament on Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. CT against either sixth-seeded Florida or 11th-seeded Kentucky.