It was announced this week by the Greater Wichita Area Sports Commission that red shirt-junior catcher Dominic Miroglio is on the 2017 Johnny Bench Award watch list. The award goes to the top collegiate catcher in division one baseball each year. Miroglio is the only representative for the WCC to this point.

"I am very proud of Dom's nomination to the Johnny Bench watch list," Head coach Nino Giarratano said. "We look forward to his pursuit of this wonderful award. He has worked extremely hard to this point of his career."

Miroglio is batting .255 so far this season with three homers, eight RBI and nine runs scored. He got the bat going at a tournament hosted by No. 18 Coastal Carolina in Conway, South Carolina this past weekend. In the four games he hit three home runs, including two in one game against Winthrop.

He has also has shown off his defensive abilities, especially in the Dons win against Utah Valley. In that game, he picked off a runner at second and another at first while also throwing out a potential base stealer at second base.

The list will be narrowed down to semifinalists on May 17^th with the finalists announced on June 5^th.

The Dons are in Phoenix, Arizona this weekend for a three-game set with Grand Canyon University beginning on Friday. USF will return home on Wednesday to host Fresno St. at 2:30 p.m. and you can buy a ticket by clicking here. Then, that following weekend will be the WCC opener against LMU. You can buy a ticket to the first conference game of 2017 by clicking here.