Mercer baseball standout Lewis earns All-America nod

Mercer junior Kyle Lewis was named to the 2016 Louisville Slugger preseason All-America second team, as announced by Collegiate Baseball newspaper on Tuesday.

Lewis joined Georgia's Robert Tyler of Crisp County (second team) and Georgia Tech's Zac Ryan (third team) as the Division I players representing the state.

The Snellville product had a breakout season in 2015 with a with a host of national and conference honors.

The center fielder became the first player in program history to take home the Gregg Olson Breakout Player of the Year Award, while also garnering second-team All-America recognition from multiple publications to go along with conference player of the year.

He carried that momentum to the summer, participating in the TD Ameritrade College Home Run Derby on ESPN and earning a bid to the Cape Cod League All-Star Game.

Lewis fell just short of the Southern Conference triple crown last season, topping the conference in batting average (.367) and home runs (17) while finishing fifth in RBI (56).

This story was originally published December 22, 2015 at 10:15 PM with the headline "Mercer baseball standout Lewis earns All-America nod ."