STANDISH, Maine - The 2014-15 Capital One Academic All-District® Baseball Teams, selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), have been released and Saint Joseph's College senior pitcher Alex Valenti (Lawrence, Mass.) and junior outfielder Taylor Reuillard (Biddeford, Maine) have earned NCAA DIII District 1 All-Academic honors.
Both players are now eligible for even higher academic honors as All-District recipients advance to the Capital One Academic Team ballot, where first, second and third team members will be selected later this month.
Valenti and Reuillard are the first Saint Joseph's baseball players to earn a Capital One Academic All-District® award since former standout Chris Campbell '11 claimed the same honor during his senior season.
Valenti, the 2015 Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Pitcher of the Year and First Team All-Conference selection, posted a 3.86 ERA with a 3-4 record and a team-high 60 strikeouts in 56 innings this spring. A two-year team captain, Valenti has earned multiple academic honors as a Business Major, including a pair of GNAC All-Academic awards, and was selected as the 2015 SJC Male Student-Athlete of the Year in a banquet held last week.
A four-year contributor on the mound for the Monks, Valenti owns a 13-9 record with a 3.05 ERA and 173 strikeouts over 189 career innings. He ranks among the program's all-time leaders in K's (10th), appearances (44, 8th), ERA (11th) and innings (6th).
Reuillard, a two-time All-Conference honoree and 2015 First Team All-GNAC selection, enjoyed an outstanding junior season, hitting .402 (66-164) with 35 runs, 15 doubles, four triples, a home run, 29 RBI and 10 stolen bases as the Monks' starting left fielder. An Exercise Science Major at Saint Joseph's, Reuillard is on his way to earning his second GNAC All-Academic honor this summer.
Over three seasons, Reuillard owns a .350 (128-366) batting average with 60 runs, 26 doubles, six triples, two homers, 57 RBI and 18 stolen bases in 111 career contests.
Valenti and Reuillard are the only players hailing from either a GNAC institution or a Maine college or university to collect 2014-15 Capital One Academic All-District® acclaim.
Capital One has been the entitlement rights holder to CoSIDA's Academic All-America teams programs since 2011.
The Academic All-District ® teams are divided into eight geographic districts across the United States and Canada. This is the fourth year of the expanded Academic All-America® program as CoSIDA moved from recognizing a University Division (Division I) and a College Division (all non-Division I) and has doubled the number of scholar-athletes honored. The expanded teams include NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II and NCAA Division III participants, while the College Division Academic All-America ® Team combines NAIA, Canadian and two-year schools.
The Capital One Division II and III Academic All-America® program is being financially supported by the NCAA Division II and III national governance structures, to assist CoSIDA with handling the awards fulfillment aspects for the 2014-15 DII and DIII Academic All-America® teams program.
First-team Academic All-District ® honorees advance to the Capital One Academic All-America® Team ballot, where first-, second- and third-team All-America honorees will be selected later this month and in early June.
About Capital One
Capital One Financial Corporation (www.capitalone.com) is a financial holding company whose subsidiaries, which include Capital One , N.A., and Capital One Bank (USA), N. A., had $206.9 billion in deposits and $289.9 billion in total assets as of September 30, 2013. Headquartered in McLean, Virginia, Capital One offers a broad spectrum of financial products and services to consumers, small businesses and commercial clients through a variety of channels. Capital One, N.A. has more than 900 branch locations primarily in New York, New Jersey, Texas, Louisiana, Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia. A Fortune 500 company, Capital One trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "COF" and is included in the S&P 100 index.
To be eligible for Academic All-America® consideration, a student-athlete must be a varsity starter or key reserve, maintain a cumulative G.P.A. of 3.30 on a scale of 4.00, 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 20,000 student-athletes in Divisions I, II, III and NAIA, covering all NCAA championship sports.
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Saint Joseph's College is Maine's only Catholic liberal arts college, providing a supportive, personalized and career-focused education for more than 100 years. From its 474-acre campus on the shores of Sebago Lake, the College offers more than 40 undergraduate programs to a population of approximately 1,000 students. Saint Joseph's College Online provides certificates, undergraduate and advanced degrees for working adults through an online learning program. For more, visit www.sjcme.edu.
