Defiance College baseball earns third consecutive ABCA Team Academic Excellence Award

DEFIANCE, Ohio - The Defiance College baseball program has been honored with the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) 2024–25 Team Academic Excellence Award, presented by Sports Attack, recognizing the team's outstanding commitment to academic success.

The award is presented annually to college and high school programs that achieve a cumulative team GPA of 3.0 or higher on a 4.0 scale for the academic year. Among more than 440 college programs nationwide earning the distinction, only 36 hail from the NAIA, including just 5 from the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC) and 17 from the state of Ohio—placing DC's baseball program in elite academic company.

The Yellow Jackets posted a 3.37 GPA in the fall and a 3.40 GPA in the spring, resulting in a cumulative 3.39 team GPA for the 2024–25 academic year.

This marks the sixth time in the last seven years that DC baseball has earned the ABCA academic honor and the third consecutive season under the leadership of the current coaching staff Shane Gardner and Ben Babcock. 

The ABCA Team Academic Excellence Award continues to reinforce the program's holistic approach to student-athlete development and academic achievement.

For more information on the ABCA and the full list of award recipients, visit www.abca.org.

-JACKETS-