BATON ROUGE — LSU junior right-hander Aaron Nola was named Tuesday by USA Baseball as one of 21 semifinalists for the 2014 Golden Spikes Award. The Golden Spikes Award trophy, given to the top amateur baseball player in the country, will be presented live in Los Angeles on July 17.

Nola, a Baton Rouge product, is the only two-time Southeastern Conference Pitcher of the Year (2013 and 2014) in league history. He leads the SEC this season in strikeouts (127), innings pitched (109) and opponent batting average (.173), and he is No. 3 in the nation in strikeouts. Nola is 10-1 on the year with a 1.49 ERA, and he has moved to No. 3 on the LSU career strikeouts list with 338.

GoldenSpikesAward.com will once again be the online home for the award. The web site features content devoted exclusively to the GSA, including news, voting history, past winner photo galleries, and photographs and biographical information for the 2014 semifinalists. Fans can follow online at GoldenSpikesAward.com as the list of 21 players is narrowed to a group of finalists on June 3.

Fan voting will once again be a part of the Golden Spikes Award in 2014. Voting is open for amateur baseball fans from across the country on goldenspikesaward.com. As part of this selection process, all voters will be asked to choose three players from the list of names. Voting will be open until Friday.

Last year, University of San Diego infielder Kris Bryant took home the prestigious award, joining a group of recent winners that includes Mike Zunino (2012), Trevor Bauer (2011), Bryce Harper (2010), Stephen Strasburg (2009) and Buster Posey (2008).

LSU all-American pitcher Ben McDonald won the Golden Spikes Award in 1989.

Other past winners of the Golden Spikes Award include Terry Francona (1980), Will Clark (1985), Robin Ventura (1988), Jason Varitek (1994), J.D. Drew (1997), Mark Prior (2001), Jered Weaver (2004), Tim Lincecum (2006) and David Price (2007).