GREENSBORO, N.C. -- The Washington & Jefferson College baseball team, under the direction of head coach
Jeff Mountain, was one of 580 member college and high school programs from across the country who have been awarded with the 2020-21 Team Academic Excellence Award by The American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA).
Teams from every level of college and high school baseball were honored with this year's award, which highlights programs coached by ABCA members that posted a GPA of 3.0 or above on a 4.0 scale for the entire 2020-21 academic year. Over 200 high school programs and more than 380 collegiate programs were recognized with this year's award.
The program had nine student-athletes recognized on the Presidents' Athletic Conference Academic Honor Roll earlier this summer. Those student-athletes were Nick Drake (Canonsburg, Pa./Canon-McMillan), Alex Garvey (Bodys, Md./Saint John's College), Jason Gregovits (Avon Lake, Ohio/Avon Lake), Robby Heberle (Georgetown, Pa./South Side Beaver), Tyler Horvat (Irwin, Pa./Penn-Trafford), Peter Kalinski (Washington, D.C./Saint John's College), Nate Rush (Wheeling, W.Va./The Linsly School), Evan Sante (Pittsburgh, Pa./Plum) and Sam Stewart (Raleigh, N.C./Pro 5 Academy).
Additionally, Horvat was named to the Academic All-America and Academic All-District Teams by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).
Coaches were able to nominate their teams for the ABCA Team Academic Excellence Award following the conclusion of their spring semesters prior to the nomination deadline of July 12. To be honored, teams had to meet the following criteria:
- Must be a high school or college team
- Head coach must be a current ABCA member
- Team must have a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.00 on a 4.0 scale during the 2020-21 academic year
The Presidents finished 2021 with a 37-3 overall record. The 37 wins represent the third most in a single-season in program history, trailing only the Division III CWS teams from 2017 and 2019. With a 3-0 win over Saint Vincent College on May 15, W&J captured its 13th Presidents' Athletic Conference title and punched its ticket to the NCAA Division III Tournament for an eighth time. W&J finished with a Division III best .925 winning percentage in 2021.
