Conway, S.C. (WBTW) — Coastal Carolina baseball’s Tommy La Stella was named to the American League All-Star team for the 2019 Major League Baseball All-Star Game presented by Mastercard on Tuesday, July 9, at Progressive Field in Cleveland.
A finalist for the inaugural Google MLB All-Star Starters Election which allowed the fans to pick the starters at each position for this year’s all-star game earlier this month, La Stella is the first Chanticleer player to make an MLB All-Star game.
Playing for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim this season, La Stella is having a career year. The sixth-year major leaguer is hitting .297 with a career-high 16 home runs and 44 RBIs as the everyday second basemen. He has also posted career numbers in hits (82), runs scored (48), total bases (137), slugging percentage (.496). La Stella also has a .349 on-base percentage and a .845 on-base plus slugging this season.
An eighth-round pick in the 2011 MLB Draft by the Atlanta Braves, La Stella was a unanimous All-American in 2011 for the Chanticleers. Named the 2011 Big South Player of the Year, La Stella was also a 2011 ABCA All-Region first team pick and earned a spot on the All-Big South first team in both 2010 and 2011.
In his two years at Coastal, La Stella hit .388 with 28 home runs, 29 doubles and 136 RBIs over 125 games played. His .650 career slugging percentage ranks first all-time in CCU history, while he also ranks third all-time Coastal history in on-base percentage (.463), fifth in batting average (.388) and 11th in home runs (28).
