PULLMAN — Washington State University Cougars’ lefthander Nick Lewis was named one of three finalists for a 2026 ABCA Rawlings Gold Glove, the American Baseball Coaches Association announced Monday. Lewis, along with Ruger Riojas from Texas and Eric Segura from Oregon State are the three pitchers up for the national award, according to a release from WSU Athletic Communications. 

The award is presented annually to the top defensive players from each division of collegiate and high school baseball. The 2026 NCAA Division I Gold Glove finalists were voted on and selected by the ABCA NCAA Div. I All-America and Coach of the Year Committee. 

In a release from ABCA, the Gold Glove winners in all divisions were announced Wednesday by Rawlings Sporting Goods. Results of this were unavailable at the time of publication.

Last week, Lewis was named to the ABCA All-West Region Second Team, the first Cougar pitcher to earn All-Region honors since 1993.  

Lewis was named the 2026 Mountain West Conference Pitcher of the Year, WSU’s first conference pitcher of the year in program history and was also selected to both All-Tournament Teams at the Mountain West Conference Tournament and Eugene NCAA Regional. 

The redshirt-sophomore from Corona, California finished the season with a 10-2 record and 2.97 ERA in 100 innings, WSU’s first 10-game winner since 2000. 

Lewis was at his best in the postseason where he earned a career high 11 strike outs and allowed one unearned run in 8.2 innings of the quarterfinal win over Air Force at the Mountain West Conference tournament. 

Lewis took the ball in WSU’s first NCAA Tournament appearance and delivered by firing a complete game six-hitter to beat seventh-ranked Oregon State in the opening round of the Eugene Regional. 

Cougar third baseman Paul Gran is the only previous Gold Glove award winner after earning the award in 2008, a year after the Gold Glove started in 2007. 

Washington State finished the 2026 season with a 31-28 record, the most wins since the 2010 season, including a Mountain West Conference Tournament championship, the first conference championship since 1976, and reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2010. 

Founded in 1945, the American Baseball Coaches Association is the primary professional organization for baseball coaches at the amateur level. It's over 15,000 members and represents all 50 states and 41 countries.  

Since its initial meeting of 27 college baseball coaches in June 1945, Association membership has broadened to include nine divisions: NCAA Division I, II and III, NAIA, NJCAA, Pacific Association Division, High School, Youth and Travel.