BATON ROUGE — Fourteen LSU baseball players ? the most in the program’s history ? have been named to the Southeastern Conference Academic Honor Roll. The previous high for the LSU squad was 12 players, established in 2004 and in 2005.
The 2008 team’s cumulative GPA for the spring semester was 2.89, the highest figure in LSU Baseball history. The cumulative GPA for the entire 2007-08 academic year was 2.77, also the highest ever recorded by the baseball program.
The Tigers logged 345 hours of community service work during the 2007-08 academic year, the most this season by any of the LSU men’s sports programs.
“I’m very proud of our players for all they have done on the field this year,” said LSU coach Paul Mainieri. “I’m equally proud of their accomplishments in the classroom and in the community. We have a great group of kids who care about the right things, and they are outstanding representatives of LSU.”
The 2008 SEC Academic Honor Roll is based on grades from the 2007 summer, 2007 fall and 2008 spring terms.
Below are the LSU players that earned Academic Honor Roll recognition:
Kyle Beerbohm, LHP, Senior, Kinesiology
Paul Bertuccini, RHP, Sophomore, Management
Jared Bradford, RHP, Senior, General Studies
Ryan Byrd, LHP, Junior, General Studies
Matt Clark, 1B, Junior, General Studies
Kevin Farnsworth, C, Sophomore, Biological Sciences
Matt Gaudet, 1B, Junior, General Studies
Buzzy Haydel, INF, Junior, General Studies
Michael Hollander, 3B, Senior, Communication Studies
Jason Lewis, C, Senior, General Studies
Blake Martin, LHP, Junior, General Studies
Nicholas Pontiff, OF, Junior, Management
Ryan Schimpf, INF, Sophomore, Undeclared
Ryan Verdugo, LHP, Junior, General Studies
Each student-athlete must 1) have a GPA of 3.00 for either the preceding academic year or have a cumulative GPA of 3.00 or above; 2) be on scholarship, a letter winner or have participated on a varsity team for two years if non-scholarship; 3) have completed 24 semester hours of non-remedial credit; and 4) have been a member of the varsity team for the sport’s entire NCAA Championship segment.