GREENSBORO, N.C. -- The Washington & Jefferson College baseball team, under the direction of veteran head coach
Jeff Mountain, was one of nearly 700 member college and high school programs from across the country to been awarded the 2021-22 The American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) Team Academic Excellence Award, which is presented by Sports Attack
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 2021-22 academic year.
Over 250 high school programs and more than 420 collegiate programs were recognized with this year's award.
The program had 10 student-athletes recognized on the Presidents' Athletic Conference Academic Honor Roll earlier this summer. Those student-athletes were Brody Bartenstein (Corning, N.Y./Corning-Painted Post), Trevor Dean (San Diego, Calif./Rancho Bernardo), Jacob Eiermann (Avon, Ohio/St. Ignatius), Tyler Horvat (Irwin, Pa./Penn-Trafford), John Klein (Vienna, Va./Madison), Ethan Marszalek (Katy, Texas/Seven Lakes), Nate Rush (Wheeling, W.Va./The Linsly School), Evan Sante (Pittsburgh, Pa./Plum), Sam Stewart (Raleigh, N.C./Pro 5 Academy) and Scout Zaas (Powell, Ohio/Wellington School).
Additionally, Horvat and Sante were 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 14. 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 2021-22 academic year
The American Baseball Coaches Association has a long tradition of recognizing the achievements of baseball coaches and student-athletes. The ABCA/Rawlings All-America Teams are the nation's oldest, founded in 1949, and the ABCA's awards program also includes the ABCA/Rawlings All-Region Awards, the ABCA/ATEC Regional & National Coaches of the Year and several other major awards such as the ABCA Hall of Fame and the Dave Keilitz Ethics in Coaching Award.
The Presidents finished 2022 with a 37-10 overall record. The 37 wins is tied for the third most in a single-season in program history, trailing only the Division III CWS teams from 2017 and 2019. With a 10-2 win over Saint Vincent College on May 14, W&J captured its 14th Presidents' Athletic Conference title and punched its ticket to the NCAA Division III Tournament for a ninth time.
