Chapman ace named to Academic All-America baseball team
ORANGE, Calif. – In just three years, Chapman University junior RHP Brian Rauh has turned the Panthers' record books inside-out and earned a cluster of accolades to fill more than a few scrapbooks. However, this latest honor might be the most impressive. Rauh has been named to the Capital One Academic All-America Division III Baseball first team, as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).
Rauh becomes Chapman's first Academic All-American since Nicole Hayman (Women's Basketball, third team) in 2009 and the Panthers' first baseball honoree since Scott Akamine (second team) in 2004. You have to go back to Matt Barcellona in 1999 to find the last Chapman baseball player named first team Academic All-America.
Perhaps most impressive is the rare feat the right-hander pulled off in becoming just the third Chapman student-athlete ever to be named All-America and Academic All-America in the same year, following in the footsteps of Stephanie Carew (Softball, 1998-99) and Melody Bongiorno (Women's Basketball, 2004). Only Carew in 1999 was named to the first team in each, like Rauh. Both Carew and Bongiorno are in Chapman's Athletic Hall of Fame.
Earlier this month, Chapman's ace was named to the Capital One Academic All-District VIII team for the second straight year with a 3.53 GPA in business. For his career, Rauh has compiled a remarkable 30-1 record with a 1.78 ERA. The Panthers' career leader with 355 strikeouts, he was even more dominant in 2012. A native of Lake Forest, Calif., he was 8-1 with a 1.27 ERA for a Chapman team that went 20-20. Opposing hitters batted just .159 against him and he finished in the top-10 in Division III in ERA, hits allowed per nine innings and No. 3 in strikeouts with 122 in 92 innings.
The Capital One Academic All-America program honors male and female student-athletes in 12 sports annually. Student-athletes must be varsity starters or key reserves, maintain a grade-point average of at least a 3.30 on a 4.00 scale, have reached sophomore athletic and academic standings at his/her current institution and be nominated by his/her sports information director. Since the program's inception in 1952, CoSIDA has bestowed Academic All-America honors on more than 14,000 student-athletes in Divisions I, II, III and NAIA, covering all NCAA championship sports.
by Doug Aiken
Sports Information Director
Capital One Academic All-America baseball teams: http://cosida.com/media/documents/2012/5/2012_CO_AAA_D3_BaseballTeam.pdf
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