On the heels of an impressive freshman season, Georgia Tech catcher Kevin Parada begins his sophomore as a selection to the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association all-American Third Team, the school announced earlier this month in a press release.
“Parada has now been named a preseason all-American by Collegiate Baseball, Perfect Game and Baseball America,” GT said in the release. “He joins nine student-athletes on the NCBWA’s three preseason teams.”
Recruited out of private, Roman Catholic all-boys high school Loyola in Los Angeles, Parada made an immediate impact in the battery during his freshman season with the Yellow Jackets.
According to the school, Parada garnered a program-best .318 batting average to become the first GT freshman since Matt Murton in 2011 to lead the Yellow Jackets in hitting and take home consensus freshman all-American honors.
Parada, who hails from Pasadena, Calif. and was sixth-ranked player overall in all of the Golden State during the final season of his prep career, also smashed 20 doubles during the first round of last year’s Big Dance to lead the ACC.
“Parada was praised following his freshman campaign, being named a freshman all-American by D1Baseball, Collegiate Baseball and Perfect Game, as well as ABCA/Rawlings All-Southeast Region second-team, third-team all-ACC and the ACC’s all-freshman team,” the school said on its website. “He was also selected to be a member of the 2021 USA Baseball Collegiate National Team last summer.”
GT finished the 2021 campaign with an overall 31-25 record (21-15 in conference play).
The Yellow Jackets enter the 2022 season as the 11th-ranked in the country, boasting seven players who are entries on Perfect Game’s top 300 MLB prospects list and four on D1Baseball’s top 100 prospects list, according to the school.
Alerts Sign-up