MSU-Best, SEC-High 23 Diamond Dogs Earn SEC Academic Honor Roll Status
STARKVILLE, Miss. --- Mississippi State placed a school-record and conference-leading 23 baseball players on the 2008 SEC Spring Academic Honor Roll released this week by the Southeastern Conference. The total surpasses the previous school mark of 21 Diamond Dogs on the academic honor squad set in 2006. Florida and Kentucky tied for the second-most baseball selections with 17 each.
Fifth-year senior pitchers Justin Pigott of Picayune, Miss., and Andy Wilson of Columbus, Ga., earned their fourth academic honor roll designations. Both were also included on the 2004 SEC Freshman Academic Honor Roll. The 2008 SEC Freshman Academic Honor Roll has not been announced by the conference office.
Third-year academic honorees included junior outfielder Nick Hardy of Flora, Miss., and senior pitcher John Lalor of Germantown, Tenn.
The other Diamond Dogs cited by the SEC for their academic achievement include Ricky Bowen, Jet Butler, Jesse Carver, Will Coggin, Scott DeLoach, Cade Hoggard, Grant Hogue, Drew Hollinghead, Greg Houston, Jared Koon, Brooks Lewis, Tyler Moore, Jason Nappi, Connor Powers, Ryan Powers, Russ Sneed, Lee Swindle, Aaron Weatherford and Tyler Whitney.
Among qualifications for the SEC Academic Honor Roll, a student-athlete must have compiled a grade point average of 3.00 or better for the preceding academic year or have a cumulative GPA of at least 3.00.
Baseball paced MSU’s eight spring sports in honor roll selections, with 77 State student-athletes earning academic all-conference designation.
Since the Southeastern Conference first honored its scholar-athletes with Academic All-SEC designation in 1971, Mississippi State baseball players have received academic all-conference or honor roll status an SEC-leading 266 times. Vanderbilt is second on the SEC’s all-time baseball academic honors list with 186.
SEC Baseball Academic Honors (1971-2008)
School 2008 All-time
Mississippi State 23 266
Vanderbilt 16 186
Florida 17 182
Kentucky 17 162
Louisiana State 14 162
Mississippi 16 158
South Carolina 13 155
Arkansas 14 154
Georgia 14 132
Alabama 9 125
Tennessee 10 110
Auburn 5 109
TOTAL 168 1,901