SEWARD, Neb. – Named an NAIA Scholar-Team back in June, the Concordia University baseball program has picked up another honor for its work in the classroom. The 2018 baseball squad garnered the ABCA Team Academic Excellence Award last week (Aug. 1), as announced by the American Baseball Coaches Association. Head coach Ryan Dupic’s Bulldogs were one of 14 NAIA baseball programs recognized by the ABCA.
To be honored, team’s had to meet the following critera:
- 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 2017-18 academic year.
Few baseball programs nationally matched Concordia’s 3.37 grade-point average during the 2017-18 academic year. That figure actually ranked in a tie for No. 1 among the 73 NAIA baseball programs that achieved NAIA Scholar-Team status. Six members of the 2017-18 squad were named NAIA Scholar-Athletes: Matt Armstrong, Johnny May, Logan Ryan, Thomas Sautel, Tanner Wauhob and Wyatt Weller.
On the field, Dupic has led the program to a combined mark of 113-89 over four seasons at the helm of the program. The 2017 squad won the GPAC regular-season title and set a new school single-season standard with 34 wins.