BRADENTON -- Chalk up another first for the Bradenton Marauders.

Alex Dickerson, the first baseman for the high Single-A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates, was named the Florida State League's Player of the Year on Monday.

He is the Marauder to win the award. The team is currently in its third season.

"I'm honestly a little surprised, but it's a huge honor," Dickerson said in a statement released by the Pirates. "I can't believe I've gotten this far, especially the way I started the year."

Dickerson, 22, enters tonight's doubleheader against Fort Myers second in the league in RBIs (88), hits (141) and doubles (31).

He is batting .299 with 12 home runs and 12 stolen bases and is slugging .454.

He batted .256 in April, but hasn't hit lower than .281 in any month since, and is batting .321 with 11 RBIs in August.

"It's a real tribute to my teammates because I didn't make it on any personal statistics," Dickerson said. "It was all RBIs, runs scored, and that comes down to your teammates being on base when you get to hit them in and them hitting you in."

Dickerson is batting .304 with runners in scoring position. A lefty, Dickerson is also hitting .310 against lefties this year.

Dickerson was originally drafted by the Washington Nationals in the 48th round in 2008, when he was a senior in Poway High in Poway, Calif.

He chose college, however, and played at Indiana, where he won the Big Ten triple crown in 2010, when he hit

.419 average with 24 home and 75 RBIs and was named a First-Team All-America.

The Pirates took him in the third-round of 2011 draft and sent Dickerson to their New York-Penn League team in State College, where he hit .313 in 41 games.

Dickerson and the Marauders (30-30 in the second half) are now trying to land the team's third-straight playoff berth.

Dickerson was the only Marauder named to the Florida State League's postseason All-Star team, which was announced Monday.