Allen Named Best Baseball Student-Athlete In Mississippi

STARKVILLE – The Ferriss Trophy, presented by C Spire and the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame, remains in Starkville for the second straight year as Tanner Allen has won the 2021 award after having one of the top offensive seasons in the nation.

Finalists and the ultimate winner of the award, which honors the top collegiate baseball student-athlete in Mississippi, 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 percent of the award.

The Theodore, Alabama, native won the fan vote with 2,612 off the 5,353 total votes cast. Overall, the Diamond Dawg duo of Allen and Landon Sims (903) received 65% of the fan vote.

With Allen earning the 2021 award, he is the second straight Diamond Dawg to earn the award after Jake Mangum claimed the 2019 trophy. Mississippi State has won the most Ferris trophies since the award began in 2004, as their eight winners have all come in back-to-back seasons.

Thomas Berkery and Edward Easley went back-to-back in 2006 and 2007, Chris Stratton and Hunter Renfroe claimed the 2012 and 2013 awards and Jake Mangum and Brent Rooker won consecutive awards in 2016-17.

Allen has been at his best against the best in college baseball, as the left-handed hitter led the SEC in overall batting average (.387) and was the only SEC hitter to finish with a average over .400 in SEC play (.411). Allen produced 25 multi-hit games and 17 multi-RBI contests this season and reached base multiple times in 36 of 52 games played. Allen was the only SEC student-athlete to rank among the top-10 in average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, runs scored, RBIs, total bases and hits in the regular season.

On the season, Allen hit .300-or-better against eight of 10 SEC opponents, including a .400 average against Auburn, Vanderbilt and Texas A&M. He hit .500 against Missouri and .615 in three games at South Carolina. In conference play, Allen was on base in 29 of 30 games with a conference-leading 16 multi-hit and 12 multi-RBI contests. The left-handed hitter led the SEC in conference-only average (.411), hits (51) and total bases (87). He was the only SEC hitter to post a .400 average and 50 hits in conference only games in 2021.

Allen one of two Power 5 hitters – and one of four nationally – to produce at least 50 runs scored, 70 hits and 50 RBIs in the regular season. Allen currently sits among the top 35 nationally in hits (No. 6; 79), triples (No. 9; 5), runs scored (No. 26; 53), total bases (No. 28; 126) and batting average (No. 35; .387).

Allen is also a semifinalist for the Dick Howser Trophy, which is given by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association to the college baseball national player of the year.

Mississippi State University Athletics

Allen Named Best Baseball Student-Athlete In Mississippi

Players Mentioned

Tanner Allen

Landon Sims

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