2017 CoSIDA Academic All-America Baseball Release
CoSIDA – The 2017 College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-America® Baseball Teams have been released to recognize the nation's top student-athletes for their combined performances athletically and in the classroom.
Three Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) baseball student-athletes were named to the CoSIDA Academic All-America® Baseball Teams. Northwood senior Connor Foley was a third-team All-American, while Ohio Dominican's Justin Childers and Lee Sponseller both achieved second team distinction.
| 2017 CoSIDA Baseball Academic All-District Teams | ||||||
| Pos. | Name | School | Yr. | Hometown | GPA | Major |
| IF | Justin Childers | Ohio Dominican | Jr. | Pickerington, Ohio | 3.53 | Finance/Economics |
| OF | Connor Foley | Northwood | Sr. | Bay City, Mich. | 3.75 | Accounting |
| OF | Lee Sponseller | Ohio Dominican | Jr. | Mason, Ohio | 3.68 | Finance/Economics |
Lee Sponseller is a redshirt junior outfielder from Mason, Ohio. He has a 3.68 G.P.A. as a finance and economics major. He helped the Panthers to a 25-24 record while earning first team All-Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference honors for the second time, along with second team ABCA All-Midwest Region honors.
Sponseller batted .341 with 11 doubles, 14 homers, and 37 RBI. He also walked a GLIAC-best 41 times, which led to a .474 on-base percentage, and had a .665 slugging percentage. He ranked second in the league in homers, fourth in slugging and eighth in OBP, and his 46 runs scored were also the ninth-best mark in the conference. He was previously named the 2015 GLIAC Freshman of the Year and was a first team All-GLIAC choice.
The GLIAC Player of the Year and a two-time GLIAC Player of the Week, Justin Childers batted .451 with 14 homers, 17 doubles, five triples, 60 RBIs, 62 runs scored and 18 stolen bases in 48 games. Through games played as of May 14, Childers ranks second nationally in slugging percentage (.846) and third in batting average while his .526 on-base percentage is ninth.
Childers closed the season with a 14 game hitting streak and had two or more hits in 12 of those games, hitting .609 with six homers, 25 RBIs and 14 walks in that stretch. On the season, he had 28 multi-hit games and 19 multi-RBI games. In three seasons with the Panthers, Childers has a .363 batting average with 22 homers, 122 RBIs, 32 doubles and 137 runs scored.
Connor Foley played a pivotal role in the best season in Northwood baseball history with a stellar .401 batting average in the regular season. Foley concluded the regular season second in the GLIAC in runs scored with 60, third in batting average at .401, third in the league in on base percentage at .494 and tied for the second most hits in the GLIAC with 79. Foley continued the impressive play in the post season and set a school record in runs scored with 74. Foley's 93 hits broke the school record previously held by Kevon Ventimiglia (71) from the 1998 season and ranks second all-time in hits in a season to teammate David Vinsky.
Twenty-three of the 33 members of the 2017 CoSIDA Academic All-America® NCAA Division II baseball teams have at least a 3.80 G.P.A., including six student-athletes who maintain a perfect 4.00 G.P.A. The 11 members of the first team have an average G.P.A. of 3.97.
The Division II Academic All-America® program is being financially supported by the NCAA Division II national governance structure to assist CoSIDA with handling the awards fulfillment aspects for the 2016-17 Division II Academic All-America® teams program.
