School-Record 13 Diamond Dogs On SEC Baseball Academic Honor Roll

Apr 30, 2003

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Mississippi State has placed a school-record 13 players on the 2003 SEC Baseball Academic Honor Roll, released Wednesday by the Southeastern Conference in Birmingham, Ala. It represents the second-most baseball academic honorees in the SEC for the 2001-2002 academic year.

Senior pitcher Joey Collums of Germantown, Tenn., earned his fourth SEC academic all-conference honor, while senior pitcher Steven Dowe of Tylertown, Miss., and outfielder Cager Garner of Starkville, Miss., received their third honor roll selections.

For the second time in his career senior shortstop Matthew Maniscalco of Oxford, Ala., earned a position on the academic honor team for baseball, while nine others earned the distinction for the first time with this year's listing. They include infielder Josh Abraham of Starkville, Miss., infielder/DH Brent Lewis of Jackson, Tenn., outfielder Casey Long of Brandon, Miss., pitcher Todd Nicholas of Greenville, Ala., catcher Lee Parks of Suffolk, Va., infielder Josh Thoms of Newton, Miss., catcher/DH J.B. Tucker of Bradenton, Fla., and pitcher Chris Young of Stowe, Ohio.

The Southeastern Conference has saluted the outstanding academic performances by its student-athletes since 1971, first with Academic All-SEC designation and beginning in 1984 with the SEC Academic Honor Roll. In a span of more than 30 years, Mississippi State has raced into the lead in the total number of SEC academic selections. Including this year's school-best 13 selections, Mississippi State baseball players have been accorded academic all-conference designation by the Southeastern Conference 171 times, 44 more than the next highest team total.

SEC BASEBALL
ACADEMIC HONOR ROLL SELECTIONS (since 1971)

School # of honorees
Mississippi State 171
Vanderbilt 127
Mississippi 120
Florida 116
Kentucky 106
Louisiana State 106
Alabama 95
Arkansas (since 1992) 91
Georgia 87
Auburn 85
South Carolina (since 1992) 84
Tennessee 72

Notice the top 3 schools will you, hmmm, 2 out of the 3 are from Mississippi eh? Don't think that small fact did not go unnoticed by me. :D Oh and congrats to the student-athletes for excelling in the classroom also. :D