Wheeling, W. Va. - On Wednesday, the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) honored nearly 700 college and high school baseball programs across the country with ABCA Team Academic Excellence Awards. Among those teams was the Wheeling University Baseball team, who had a cumulative GPA of 3.127 for the 2021-22 Academic Year. It is the first time that the team has earned the award since Ryan Lewicki was named Head Coach in 2019, honoring the work that the team has done in the classroom as well as on the field.
In 2022, nearly 700 college and high school programs were honored with the award across all levels of the NCAA, NAIA, and High School programs across the country. To be eligible for the ABCA Team Academic Excellence award, a team must have a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale during the 2021-22 Academic Year, and their head coach must also be a member of the ABCA. The ABCA has a long tradition of recognizing programs across the country for their hard work and Wheeling adds to that list for its work in the classroom.
To go along with the cumulative GPA of 3.127, Wheeling baseball also took home the Wheeling University Student-Athlete of the Year award when left-handed pitcher Hayden Scudder finished with a 4.0. Scudder was also nominated as Wheeling's nominee for the 2021-22 MEC Male Student-Athlete of the Year award back in late June. Several other players on the team were able to produce 3.0 marks and the award represents the building of the program not just on the field but off the field as well.
Lewicki has set this award as a goal for his team for several seasons and to see it come to fruition this season is a testament to his guys' work in the classroom.
"The ABCA Team Academic Award is a testament to my guys for all their hard work and dedication in the classroom over the past year," said Lewicki. "This is the first time since I have been the head coach at Wheeling that our team has received this honor. It's exciting to see the recognition for our program in more ways than just success on the field. This is an award and honor we want to achieve yearly in our program."
The Cardinals are one of two Mountain East Conference (MEC) programs recognized with this award, joining The University of Charleston on the list. On the field, Wheeling just missed out on a spot in the MEC playoffs this past season but finished at 22-27 overall and 18-14 in MEC play. They battled until the final day of the season and finished fourth overall in the MEC North Division. They come back for the 2023 season looking to get back to the playoffs and search for their first MEC Championship in program history.
