The race for the 2011 batting championship in the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League came down to the final day of the regular season. When the dust settled and the final out was recorded, Cooperstown’s Bryan Aanderud (Cypress) and Elmira’s Ryan Normoyle (Washington, Md.) each finished the year with a .379 batting average to share the PGCBL batting crown. Watertown’s Erick Gaylord (Campbell) just fell short in his bid for the Triple Crown. Gaylord led the league in home runs (10) and RBI (42) but finished fourth with a .360 batting average.
Bryan Aanderud, bound for Liberty University in the fall, played and started 38 of 45 regular season games for the PGCBL West champion Hawkeyes. He batted .379 with 50 hits in 132 at-bats. Aanderud posted 41 singles, six doubles, one triple and two home runs. The Cooperstown third baseman drove in 26 runs and scored 13. He recorded 15 multi-hit and six multi-RBI games. He finished the regular season with a .485 slugging percentage and a .425 on-base percentage. Over 132 at bats, Aanderud struck out only nine times.
The Fullerton, Calif., native led the Hawkeyes in batting average, hits and runs batted in. At the league level, his .425 on-base percentage ranked third among all qualifying PGCBL hitters. From July 7 through July 19, Aanderud registered a 13-game hit streak which was the longest of any Hawkeye this season. Most impressively, the Cypress College graduate reached base via hit or walk in 35 of 38 games played.
Ryan Normoyle, a rising senior at Washington College of Maryland, appeared in 45 games for the Elmira Pioneers and started 43. He recorded a .379 batting average with 67 hits in 177 at-bats. Normoyle totaled 57 singles, nine doubles and one home run. The Elmira shortstop scored 35 runs, drove in 34 runs and stole 12 bases. He tallied a .446 slugging percentage and a .434 on-base percentage. Normoyle was a key component in an Elmira offense that finished first in the PGCBL with 306 overall runs (6.5 runs per game). He recorded a staggering 21 multi-hit games (three four-hit efforts) and eight multi-RBI games.
The Mount Laurel, N.J., native led the league in hits, finished second in on-base percentage and fifth in runs batted in. He topped the Pioneers in batting average, hits and stolen bases and tied for first on the team in runs scored. Normoyle finished the regular season on an eight-game hitting streak and he had at least one hit in 14 of his final 15 starts. In a stretch between June 26 and July 1, Normoyle recorded six multiple-hit games in a row and the run finished with three-straight games of three hits.
Normoyle was voted by the league’s coaches as a PGCBL All-Star Game starter. However, due to injury, he was limited to a pinch-hitting appearance.
