Dec. 5, 2008

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue infielder/catcher Dan Black has been listed as a player to watch for the 2009 Brooks Wallace Award, the College Baseball Foundation announced from Lubbock, Texas, this week.

Black returns for his junior season in West Lafayette after leading the Boilermakers with 18 homers last year. The switch hitter batted .320 with 15 doubles and a team-best 70 RBIs last spring. At the Big Ten Conference Tournament in Ann Arbor, Mich., he tied a tournament record by hitting three home runs in a game against Indiana, thereby sending the Boilers to the championship against Michigan, and broke the tournament record for homers with five bombs in four games played.

The Wallace Award is dedicated to the memory of former Texas Tech player and assistant coach Brooks Wallace. Wallace was a slick-fielding shortstop at Texas Tech from 1977 to 1980. A four-year starter, he was named All-Southwest Conference and All-District his senior year. He led the Red Raiders to their first-ever appearance in the Southwest Conference Tournament in 1980.

After playing two years in the Texas Rangers organization, he returned to Texas Tech and served as a graduate assistant and later as an assistant coach. In the summer of 1984, he was diagnosed with cancer and fought the disease courageously until his death on March 24, 1985, at age 27. The Plano, Texas, native was married to the former Sandy Arnold and they had one daughter, Lindsay Ryan.

Purdue, which finished second in the Big Ten regular season and at the conference tournament last year, will open its 2009 season in St. Petersburg, Fla., on February 20 against Cincinnati in the first ever Big East/Big Ten Challenge.

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