Valpo Baseball receives ABCA Team Academic Excellence Award

Valpo Baseball receives ABCA Team Academic Excellence Award

The Valparaiso University athletic department continues to haul in academic honors for its collective success in the classroom throughout the 2019-2020 academic year.

This time, it’s the Valpo baseball program in the limelight as head coach Brian Schmack’s squad was honored by the American Baseball Coaches Association as a Team Academic Excellence Award Recipient.

Programs coached by ABCA members that posted a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or better on a 4.0 scale were recognized. Valpo posted a 3.22 team GPA this year, joining Indiana State and Bradley as Missouri Valley Conference members to receive the academic recognition.

This year, Valpo boasted a pair of repeat MVC Scholar-Athlete First Team selections – Steven Fitzsimmons (Golden Valley, Minn. / Robbinsdale Cooper) and Jon Tieman (Crystal Lake, Ill. / Prairie Ridge), while Easton Rhodehouse (Gilbert, Ariz. / Highland) earned MVC Scholar-Athlete Honorable Mention. In addition, Christian Barczi (Naperville, Ill. / Naperville North) was named a Third Team Academic All-American by CoSIDA.