FORT MYERS, Fla. – FGCU juniors Chris Sale (Lakeland, Fla.) and Mikel Alvarez (West Palm Beach, Fla.) were named to the 2010 All-South Region team, as announced by the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA). Sale picked up first team honors for his season on the mound, while Alvarez earned second team recognition at second base.

Arkansas, Auburn and Louisville led all teams in the region with three players selected from their respective clubs, while Alabama, Florida, Florida Gulf Coast, Morehead State, Tennessee Tech and Vanderbilt had two players each that were honored as well.

Sale, already named Collegiate Baseball's National Player of the Year, the Atlantic Sun Conference Pitcher of the Year, a finalist for the College Baseball Foundation's Pitcher of the Year award, and a finalist for the 2010 USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award (GSA), finished his junior season with an 11-0 record, two saves and a 2.01 ERA in 17 appearances. He racked up 146 strikeouts with just 14 walks for a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 10.4-to-1 for the year.

Earlier this week, the ABCA announced that Sale was also named to it’s All-American first team, giving the Lakeland, Fla. native his fifth All-American honor this year (Ping!Baseball, Louisville Slugger, Yahoo! Sports, Baseball America, ABCA/Rawlings).

Sale was drafted with the 13th overall pick in the first round of the 2010 MLB First-Year Player Draft by the Chicago White Sox and will begin his career with the Winston-Salem Dash, the Class A Advanced affiliate of the White Sox.

Alvarez finished the season as the team leader in games played (58), games started (58), batting average (.409), runs score (63), hits (99), and sacrifices (17). Holding a .981 fielding percentage, the middle infielder also recorded a .481 on-base percentage after compiling 15 doubles, two triples and five home runs, while knocking in 39 RBI and swiping 11 bases on the year.

The duo brings the total number of FGCU baseball players named to the All-South Region team to seven. (Jason Cooper, 2004; Jason Louwsma, 2005, 2006; Casey Coleman, 2006; Ozzie Borrell, 2007; Richard Bleier, 2007)

All-South Region First Team
Starting Pitchers
Chris Sale, Florida Gulf Coast
Drew Pomeranz, Ole Miss
Thomas Royce, Louisville

Relief Pitcher
Neil Holland, Louisville

Catcher
Micah Gibbs, LSU

First Base
Hunter Morris, Auburn

Second Base
Ryan Wright, Louisville

Shortstop
Josh Rutledge, Alabama

Third Base
Zack Cox, Arkansas

Outfield
Brian Fletcher, Auburn
Brett Eibner, Arkansas
Chad Oberacker, Tennessee Tech
Taylor Dugas, Alabama

Designated Hitter
AJ Kirby-Jones, Tennessee Tech

All-South Region Second Team
Starting Pitchers
Scott Copeland, Southern Miss
Drew Smyly, Arkansas
Sonny Gray, Vanderbilt

Relief Pitcher
Kevin Chapman, Florida

Catcher
Jim Klocke, SEMO

First Base
Paul Hoilman, East Tennessee State

Second Base
Anthony Gomez, Vanderbilt
Mikel Alvarez, Florida Gulf Coast

Shortstop
Drew Lee, Morehead State

Third Base
Jacob Tanis, Mercer

Outfield
Trent Mummey, Auburn
JD Ashbrook, Morehead State
Matt den Dekker, Florida

Designated Hitter
Nate Woods, Belmont