BOSTON -- For the second consecutive season, UMBC's Luke Johnson has been named the America East Pitcher of the Year, the Conference announced on Tuesday afternoon. Johnson becomes the second person in the award's 34 year history to win it twice, and the first to win it outright twice (former MLB pitcher Nick Tropeano of Stony Brook shared the award in 2010 before winning it outright in 2011).

Johnson also earned a spot on the All-Conference First Team for the third time in his illustrious career, becoming the first Retriever to earn the distinction. He was joined on the First Team by Sam Downs, who earned the Conference's lone relief pitcher spot on the First Team.

Jayden Shertel was named to the All-Conference Second Team as a pitcher, Kyle Eddington and Danny Wyatt were both honored on the All-Rookie team, and Derek Paris joined Sam Downs on the All-Academic Team. 

Johnson led the America East in wins and strikeouts in conference play, while finishing top five in all other pitching categories. Downs was 4-0, had a league-best 2.31 ERA, recorded four saves and had a .218 batting average against in America East play (right behind Johnson's .212).

Shertel went 3-5 with a 3.46 ERA and finished in the top 15 in the league in most pitching categories. Eddington and Wyatt each had stellar freshmen campaigns for the Retrievers, with Eddington driving in 10 runs in AE play, while Wyatt had two homers in AE play, finished fifth overall in batting average in conference play (.329), fourth in RBI (23) and 10th in slugging (.549).

Downs earned a spot on the All-Academic team with a 4.0 GPA in a Professional Studies: Innovation graduate program, after graduating from Stevenson with a 3.72 GPA, while Paris has a 3.84 GPA as a Computer Science major.

The Retrievers (25-23, 14-10 AE) are seeded second in the America East Tournament. They received a bye to the second round and will face the highest remaining seed on Thursday at 3 p.m. in Binghamton.