HAMMOND, La. – The American Baseball Coaches Association announced Wednesday that the Southeastern Louisiana University baseball team has been recognized for its work in the classroom this past school year with the annual ABCA Team Academic Excellence Award presented by Sports Attack.
 
SLU achieved a combined 3.15 team GPA for the full 2021-22 academic year.
 
"I'm so proud of our guys as they continue to set the standard," head coach Matt Riser said. "Our old goal used to be a 3.0, but now the bar is set at a 3.1 every year. We are looking to push that to a 3.2. A lot of our success has been set up by our Assistant AD, Austin Knight. He continues to work extremely hard with our student-athletes and assistant coaches to make sure we are striving for excellence in the classroom every semester. He's an absolute rockstar. Our guys continue to compete to be the best version of themselves. I absolutely love to see this core foundation cherished like it is."
 
Long a hallmark of the Southeastern program, the Lions have placed the most players of any Southland Conference institution on the Southland Commissioner's Honor Roll over the past nine years. With 25 honorees in the spring of 2022, a total of 234 baseball student-athletes have procured a 3.0 semester GPA or better while in-season.
 
Earlier this summer, four SLU players – Evan Keller, Will Kinzeler, Rhett Rosevear and Gage Trahan – were named to the Southland's All-Academic team.
 
The university's Outstanding Graduating Chemistry Senior, Keller was also named the Louisiana American Chemical Society Outstanding Senior in Chemistry. Meanwhile, Rosevear compiled a perfect 4.0 GPA while on his way to tying the DI national record with 37 HBPs in a single season.
 
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. More than 420 collegiate programs were recognized with this year's award.
 
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 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.
 
DIAMOND CLUB / S CLUB
Fans interested in becoming active supporters of the baseball program are encouraged to join the Diamond Club. Lion baseball alums are encouraged to join the exclusive S Club, which is restricted to Southeastern athletic letter winners.
 
All membership fees and donations to both the Diamond Club and S Club (baseball) are available for the exclusive use of the Southeastern baseball program. Membership information is available by contacting the Lion Athletics Association at laa@southeastern.edu or (985) 549-5091 or by visiting www.LionUp.com.
  
SOCIAL MEDIA
For more information on Lions Baseball, follow @LionUpBaseball or @MattRiser17 on Twitter, @LionUpBaseball on Instagram and Facebook, and subscribe to the SLUathletics YouTube channel.