Wingate’s Troutman, Tusculum’s Boo And Dustin Morrow Named To Academic All-Region Teams

BRISTOL, Conn. -- Three baseball players from the South Atlantic Conference have been recognized for the academic and athletic achievement. wingate University junior catcher Blair Troutman and Tusculum College's Dustin and Boo Morrow have been selected to 2008 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District baseball teams.

Blair Troutman

Wingate University junior catcher Blair Troutman (Concord, N.C.) has been named to the 2008 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District III baseball second team (college division), selected by CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America).

Blair Troutman

A graduate of Concord High School, Troutman earns ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District III honors for the first time in his career.

The members of the College Sports Information Directors of America selected Troutman for this prestigious honor. Twenty-one student-athletes were named to either the first or second ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District III baseball teams. The 11 first team members will advance to the national ballot.

The District III College Division consists of all-non NCAA Division I colleges and universities in Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina and Virginia. To be nominated, a student-athlete must be at least a sophomore with a 3.2 cumulative grade point average. In addition, the student-athlete must be a starter or a significant reserve on his team.

Troutman hit .320 this season in 36 games (31 starts) for the Bulldogs. He collected eight doubles, four home runs and 26 RBI. Troutman posted 11 multiple hit games and eight multiple RBI contests. In the classroom, he is a Biology major with a 3.729 GPA.

A Wingate University Belk Scholarship winner, Troutman is a member of the Phi Eta Sigma and Alpha Chi national honor societies. In the community, Troutman spent the 2006-07 academic year as a volunteer reader at Marshville Elementary School. During the summer of 2007, he was the assistant coach for the N.C. state champion (and national runners-up) Carolina Hurricanes nine-and-under AAU baseball team.

Dustin Morrow, Boo Morrow

Tusculum College's Dustin and Boo Morrow have been named to the ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District IV College Division Baseball Team announced College officials Thursday. Dustin, a senior first baseman, was named to the Academic All-District First Team, while Boo, a junior right-handed pitcher, earned Second Team recognition.

Dustin Morrow

Boo Morrow

Dustin advances to the Academic All-America® ballot, which will be announced later this month. The Morrows, natives of Lexington, Ky. (Paul Dunbar HS), become the first brother combination in school history to be named to the Academic All-District Team.

Dustin has accumulated a 3.94 cumulative grade point average, while majoring in Secondary Math Education. This is the second straight year Dustin has been named to the Academic All-District team, earning Second Team honors in 2007. He was named the 2008 South Atlantic Conference Scholar Athlete for Baseball and was named to the All-Conference First Team.

Dustin, who has been injured for over a month, is boasting a .373 batting average, including seven doubles, four home runs and 22 RBI. His 662 career putouts are the fourth most in school history, while his .985 career fielding percentage is eight all-time.

He has been a member of three teams that have advanced to the NCAA Division II Tournament (2005, 2007, 2008), including this year as the Pioneers are 40-13 and ranked No. 14 in the nation.

Boo has a 3.28 GPA while majoring in Sports Management and has emerged as the ace of the Tusculum pitching staff. The 2008 All-SAC First Team honoree has a perfect 7-0 record this season with a 1.87 earned run average, which is 17th in the nation. The SAC All-Tournament standout has recorded 60 strikeouts, while tossing two complete games, including a shutout. He is also 11-0 for his career at Tusculum.

Tusculum is completing its final preparations for next week's NCAA South Regional. The Pioneers are playing a pair of exhibition games against top-ranked Mount Olive on Thursday in Salisbury, N.C. TC will host No. 22 West Virginia State on Sunday at 2 p.m. from Pioneer Park.

Members of the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District Team are selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America, which include all colleges and universities from Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Ohio and Michigan which comprise District IV.

2008 ESPN THE MAGAZINE ACADEMIC ALL-DISTRICT III
BASEBALL TEAMS (COLLEGE DIVISION, AS SELECTED BY CoSIDA)

FIRST TEAM
P-Christopher Mock, Greensboro
P-Torrey Poholsky, Greensboro
C-Jason Sherrer, Mount Olive
INF-Bryan Cook, Nova Southeastern (Fla.)
INF-Cory Clark, Nova Southeastern (Fla.)
INF-Daniel Poindexter, Greensboro
INF-Scott Russell, Methodist
OF-Gabe MacDougall, Lynn (Fla.)
OF-Andrew Frezza, Barry (Fla.)
OF-Corey Whiting, Rollins (Fla.)
DH-Nicholas Bleau, Lynn (Fla.)

SECOND TEAM
P-Weston Curles, Mount Olive
P-Nick Carris, Nova Southeastern (Fla.)
C-Blair Troutman, Wingate
INF-David Cooper, Mount Olive
INF-Frank Pfister, Emory (Ga.)
INF-Greg Larsen, Southern Virginia
INF-Drew Elkins, Bridgewater (Va.)
OF-James Madden, Washington & Lee (Va.)
OF-Matt Cox, Savannah College of Art and Design (Ga.)
OF-Jesse Lancaster, Mount Olive