Defiance Baseball secures fourth straight ABCA Team Academic Excellence Award in 2025-26

DEFIANCE, Ohio – The American Baseball Coaches Association released its 2025-26 Team Academic Excellence Award winners with the Defiance College Yellow Jackets recognized among the 800 high school and college programs recognized for the award, which is presented by Sports Attack. 

Teams were recognized across all levels of high school and college baseball by maintaining a year-long GPA of 3.0 or higher.

The Yellow Jackets accumulated a team GPA of 3.32 during the 2025-26 academic year to secure the program's fourth consecutive award. During the 2026 season, 17 Yellow Jackets were honored as Academic All-WHAC, carrying a 3.25 GPA or higher. Defiance College baseball has secured academic excellence from the ABCA all three years under head coach Shane Gardner and have totaled 56 Academic All-Conference honors in that period.

"I'm proud of our players' commitment to the classroom! We had an incredibly difficult spring with a lot of road games but our guys knew our standards, and they surpassed the expectations," says Gardner.

Defiance College was among the list of 36 NAIA baseball teams and 4 WHAC programs to receive this distinguished honor.

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