SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sacramento State reliever Kade Brown became the eighth Hornet to earn All-America honors at the Divisioin I level as the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association selected the sophomore to its All-America Third Team on Wednesday afternoon.
"I am extremely proud of Kade," Head Coach Reggie Christiansen said. "The work he has put in and the way he cares about our program is paying off."
Brown becomes the first Sacramento State player to earn All-America honors since Scott Randall was selected to the second team by Collegiate Baseball in 2021, and the first to earn honors from the NCBWA since Roland De La Maza (second team) and Will Fitzpatrick (third team) in 1993.
Named one of 11 finalists nationwide for the organization's "Stopper of the Year" award and semifinalist for the Dick Howser Player of the Year Trophy, Brown was an NCBWA preseason All-America pick back in January. He was the only representative from the Western Athletic Conference on this year's list and is one of eight players from the West Coast along with student-athletes from UC Irvine, Oregon, Oregon State, UCLA, and Saint Mary's.
A first-team All-WAC selection at the end of the regular season, Brown finished the year with a 3-2 overall record and a 2.93 ERA at the back end of the Hornets' bullpen, ranking tied for fourth in the nation with 14 saves heading into the College World Series. Over 43 innings of work, Brown allowed just 14 earned runs on 32 hits, striking out 49 hitters and holding opposing batters to a .204 average.
In only his second appearance of the season, Brown struck out a career-high eight hitters over 3.1 innings against San Francisco on Feb. 17 and finished with multiple strikeouts in a game 13 times. He earned either a save or a victory in each of his first seven appearances on the year and finished 2-0 with seven saves over his final nine appearances.
Brown's 14 saves on the year rank second on the school's all-time list behind only McLoughlin's record of 17 in 2013, while his 22 career saves are currently fourth in program history, 11 back of McLoughlin's record of 33 from 2013-15.
He was a big part of Sacramento State's championship season, helping the Hornets to a share of the WAC regular season title — its third overall and first since 2014 — and the top seed in the league's postseason tournament. Sacramento State finished 32-26 overall and 15-9 in conference play, winning 30-or-more games for the 12th time in the last 13 seasons — one of the longest such streaks on the West Coast — and their highest overall and conference win totals since 2022.
SACRAMENTO STATE BASEBALL DIVISION I ALL-AMERICANS
Matt Martinez, 1993, Collegiate Baseball (2nd Team)
Roland De La Maza, 1993, NCBWA (2nd Team)
Will Fitzpatrick, 1993, NCBWA (3rd Team)
Harvey Hargrove, 1997, Baseball America (3rd Team)
Tim Wheeler, 2009, Baseball America (2nd Team)
Rhys Hoskins, 2014, Collegiate Baseball (3rd Team)
Scott Randall, 2021, Collegiate Baseball (2nd Team)
Kade Brown, 2025, NCBWA (3rd Team)
