CARY, N.C. – USA Baseball announced today the 43rd Golden Spikes Award winner will be named live on ESPN’s Baseball Tonight: Sunday Night Countdown on Thursday leading into the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees series opener.

The program will air at 6 p.m. ET/5 p.m. CT on ESPN. Karl Ravech hosts Baseball Tonight alongside analysts Eduardo Perez and Tim Kurkjian, plus Senior MLB Insider Jeff Passan contributing news updates. 

Kevin Kopps (Arkansas), Jack Leiter (Vanderbilt), and Kumar Rocker (Vanderbilt) are the final three amateur baseball players in contention for the prestigious award. 

2021 marks just the second year in the history of the Golden Spikes Award that not only do all of the finalists hail from the same conference, but also the second time that they have all played in the Southeastern Conference (SEC). All four finalists for the award in 2015 also suited up in the SEC (Andrew Benintendi, Arkansas; Alex Bregman, LSU; Carson Fulmer and Dansby Swanson, Vanderbilt).

Additionally, this is just the second time ever that all the finalists for the award have been pitchers (2011).

For more information on the Golden Spikes Award and its past winners, visit GoldenSpikesAward.com or follow along on social media at @USAGoldenSpikes on Instagram and Twitter.