UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.; June 1, 2006 - The Penn State baseball team today announced the recipients of the four team awards that are given out annually. The annual awards are the F. Joseph Bedenk Award, for the team's most valuable member, the Shorty Stoner Award, for outstanding academic achievement, the Ed Drapcho Award, for the most improved player, and the Charles Medlar Award, to the outstanding pitcher.

Senior outfielder Lance Thompson (Brisbin, Pa.) won the F. Joseph Bedenk Award, which is presented each year to the most valuable member of the Penn State baseball team. It is given in memory of the Nittany Lions' legendary coach, Joe Bedenk, who guided Penn State from 1931-62 and was elected into the College Baseball Hall of Fame in 1966. This award has been presented annually since 1963, making it the oldest of the four awards. Thompson, a native of nearby Brisbin, Pa. and a graduate of Moshannon Valley HS, led the team in several offensive categories this year as he started every game for the second straight year and ended his career having started the last 113 games. He wound up with a career .337 batting average and with 217 career hits, fifth on the all-time list, as well as 47 career doubles, good for a tie for fourth on the PSU career list. This year, Thompson led the team in batting average (.362), at bats (213), hits (77), doubles (16), RBI (45), total bases (109), and slugging percentage (.512). He was also second on the team in home runs and on-base percentage. Academically, Thompson was an ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District II selection and will graduate this summer with a degree in Life Science, in which he currently has a 3.41 gpa.

For the second straight year, senior outfielder Travis Laird (Conneaut Lake, Pa.) is the recipient of the Shorty Stoner Award, which recognizes outstanding academic achievement. This award is named after Stoner, who was Penn State's head coach from 1982-90 and a student-athlete from 1965-67. Laird, who was a junior in eligibility this past year but has elected to focus on just academics next year, has a cumulative grade point average of 3.76 while majoring in Health Policy and Administration. He is slated to graduate next year with two bachelor's degrees. On the field, he played in 35 games this past season, starting 22 of them while getting most of the playing time in center field later in the season. He had a perfect fielding percentage in 63 total chances this year.

A current walk-on and a former member of the club baseball team at Penn State, sophomore pitcher Seth Whitehill (Bellefonte, Pa.) was voted the winner of the Ed Drapcho Award, which is given to the most improved player on the team. It is named after Drapcho, an All-American pitcher for the Nittany Lions from 1955-57 who still holds four school records for pitching. Whitehill, who was cut from the team in tryouts as a freshman before going on to pitch for the club team, tried out once again this past fall and made the team. After pitching two scoreless innings in relief in two games during the spring break trip to Florida, Whitehill got an opportunity to start the Pittsburgh game and responded with six innings pitched and just four hits and two runs allowed. After that performance and another midweek tuneup start, Whitehill was moved into the weekend rotation and pitched in the final six Big Ten series of the year. He ended the year with a 2-3 record and a 3.33 ERA, allowing just 18 earned runs in 48.2 innings pitched while striking out 36 and walking just 13. The Bellefonte native's best performance was probably the complete game, three-hit shutout he hurled at Purdue on May 7 after Penn State went down 0-2 in the series. His performance helped Penn State rebound for a split with the Boilermakers. He also picked up Penn State's lone win in the series with Big Ten champion Michigan.

A member of the Stidfole family was once again the recipient of the Charles Medlar Award for the outstanding pitcher on the team, only this year it was Alan Stidfole (Marysville, Pa.). His brother Sean won the award last season before being drafted in the Major League Baseball Amateur Draft. The award is named after former coach Charles Medlar, longtime assistant coach and head athletic trainer at Penn State who was the head baseball coach from 1963-81 and for whom the new Medlar Field at Lubrano Park is named after. Alan Stidfole served as the ace of the Nittany Lion pitching staff this year, leading the team in ERA at 4.06 and innings pitched at 93.0 along with a 3-5 record. While being the Friday starter for the entire season, Stidfole started 14 games struck out 76, second on the team, while walking just 27. He held opponents to two or fewer earned run in six of his starts, highlighted by his complete game seven-hitter at Northwestern on April 21st, in which he allowed just one run in a 12-1 Penn State win and for which he was named Big Ten Pitcher of the Week. The Nittany Lions won the most games in his starts of any pitcher on the staff this year.