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Their tenures at Arkansas will not overlap, but Heston Kjerstad and A.J. Lewis landed on the same All-America team Tuesday morning.
Both players, the Razorbacks’ slugger and their graduate transfer, were named first-team All-Americans by Collegiate Baseball for the coronavirus-shortened 2020 season. They were among 17 players chosen by the publication’s staff for first-team honors.
Kjerstad was off to a hot start and on his way - many expected - to a historic season that would have put him in the conversation for national player of the year awards.
Through 16 games, he was hitting .448/.513/.791 with six home runs and 20 RBIs. In a team-high 67 at bats, he struck out just nine times, the fewest among Arkansas’ players with at least 20 at bats.
Head coach Dave Van Horn has said multiple times that he believes Kjerstad would have hit about 25 home runs this season. That would have broken the UA single-season record and challenged the school’s career record, and in three years compared to four.
By picking up the honor, Kjerstad - who was a freshman All-American in 2018 - becomes the 28th player to earn All-America accolades at Arkansas. He is the Razorbacks’ sixth in the last three years, joining Blaine Knight and Carson Shaddy in 2018 and the trio of Isaiah Campbell, Matt Cronin and Jack Kenley in 2019.
As good as Kjerstad’s numbers were, Lewis was off to an even better start for Eastern Kentucky.
In 13 games with the Colonels, he was hitting .451 with 12 extra-base hits (seven doubles, two triples and three home runs) to give him an incredible .843 slugging percentage. Lewis also had 21 RBIs.
It was expected to be his final collegiate season because he was a senior, but the NCAA granted eligibility relief to all players in response to the pandemic and he is going to use it as a graduate transfer at Arkansas.
