SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — BYU third baseman Austin Deming was named the West Coast Conference Co-Player of the Year and First Team All-WCC on Tuesday. The senior capped off one of the best seasons in BYU history on Saturday by capturing the WCC triple crown with a league leading .418 batting average, 19 home runs and 68 RBI during the 2023 season.
Joining Deming as the other conference Co-Player of the Year was senior Christian Almanza of Saint Mary’s College.
A Santa Clara, Utah native, Deming led the WCC in nine offensive categories during the 2023 regular season. In addition to batting average, home runs and RBI, he also led the league in slugging (.915), total bases (151), hits per game (1.68), RBI per game (1.66), home runs per game (.46) and doubles per game (.56).
Deming is a semifinalist for the prestigious Dick Howser Trophy, awarded annually by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association to the nation’s top college baseball player. He is the only student-athlete from the WCC to make the semifinalist list and is also a candidate for All-American.
Nationally, Deming finished the regular season top 10 in seven offensive categories, including, No. 1 in doubles per game, slugging (2nd), RBI per game (4th), HR per game (6th), batting average (9th), doubles (9th) and hits per game (10th).
A two-time All-WCC honoree, Deming played in 171 games in his BYU career from 2019-23. As a junior in 2022 he was named First Team All-WCC. Over the past two seasons he was named WCC Player of the Week three time and was recognized as national player of the week by four different organizations on April 7 of this season.
In addition to all the success on the field, Deming graduated from BYU in April 2023 with a degree in communications, with a journalism emphasis.
Deming becomes the 10th BYU baseball player to be named conference player of the year. He joins Brock Hale (2019) as the only Cougar to receive the honor during BYU’s 12 seasons in the WCC. Other previous conference players of the year include, Brandon Taylor (2005) and Dave Jensen (2002) in the Mountain West Conference as well as Ryan Hall (1994), Gary Daniels (1990), John DeSilva (1989), Mike Willis (1988, 1987) and Gary Cooper (1986) in the Western Athletic Conference.