Chris Heston Wins Pitcher of the Year Award

Portland, ME - The Eastern League of Professional Baseball is pleased to announce that Richmond Flying Squirrels right-handed starting pitcher Chris Heston has been selected as the 2012 Eastern League Pitcher of the Year. The 24-year old has appeared in 24 games in his Double-A debut for the Flying Squirrels this season and has a record of 9-7 with 130 strikeouts and a 2.13 ERA over 143.2 innings pitched. Heston, who is a native of Sanford, Florida, currently leads the league in ERA (2.13). He is also ranked among the league leaders in WHIP (1.09-2nd), strikeouts (130-tied 4th), opponents batting average (.227-5th) and complete games (1-tied 10th). Chris made his first career Double-A start against New Britain on April 7th and gave up just one hit and three walks over five shutout innings. He has continued to dominate Eastern League batters throughout this season for Richmond, surrendering three earned runs or less in 21 of his 24 starts, including nine appearances in which he didn't allow any earned runs. Chris set a new career-high with 11 strikeouts against Trenton on May 27th and matched that total again in a start on August 12th against Bowie. Those two performances were among 13 starts in which he struck out five batters or more this season.

In addition to winning this award the 6'4", 185 lb. hurler was also selected as the Eastern League Pitcher of the Week Award after posting a record of 2-0 with 20 strikeouts and a 0.64 ERA in two games for the period of May 21st-May 27th and was also named the right-handed starting pitcher on the recently announced Eastern League All-Star Team. Heston was also the starting pitcher for the Western Division at the 2012 Baseballtown All-Star Classic in Reading and was rated by Baseball America as having the "Best Control" in the Eastern League this season.

Chris, who was named a San Francisco MiLB.com Organizational All-Star after going 12-4 with 131 strikeouts and a 3.16 ERA in 24 starts for the San Jose Giants of the Class-A California League last year, was selected by the San Francisco Giants in the 12th round of the 2009 draft after posting a record of 7-0 with 88 strikeouts and a 4.17 ERA during his junior season at East Carolina University.

Trenton right-handed starter Brett Marshall finished second in the voting for the award and Binghamton right-handed starter Zack Wheeler finished in third place. This award was voted on by Eastern League managers and media members.

Chris Heston's Statistics for the 2012 Season