MILWAUKEE – Daulton Varsho of the Milwaukee baseball team has been named one of the 15 semifinalists for 2017 Johnny Bench Award, the Greater Wichita Area Sports Commission announced last night.
 
The award was created in 2000 to honor college baseball's top catcher at the NCAA Division I level.
 
Varsho, the Horizon League Player of the Year as a sophomore after batting .381 last season, was named a 2017 Collegiate Baseball Preseason All-American in December – the first UWM baseball player to ever be named to a preseason All-American team. He is also ranked as Baseball America's No. 1 "Top Prospect" in the conference.
 
The 85-catcher watch list has been narrowed down to the semifinalists, and the finalists will be announced June 5, 2017. A final vote among the national committee will occur during the College World Series. All finalists will be brought to Wichita and the winner will be announced at the 20th Annual Greater Wichita Sports Banquet on June 29, 2017.
 
Varsho is currently wrapping up an impressive junior campaign, as the MLB-Draft hopeful is batting .366 (second in the league) and currently leads the Horizon League in slugging percentage (.644), on-base percentage (.494), runs scored (46), hits (70), triples (6) and walks (44), while cracking 10 home runs and driving in 37. He starts the weekend with 197 career hits, looking to become the first UWM junior to reach that mark in program history.