LAS VEGAS (UNLVRebels.com) – The UNLV baseball squad was named a recipient of the 2018-19 American Baseball Coaches Association's (ABCA) Team Academic Excellence Award. The Rebels were one of 50 NCAA Division I programs and the only Mountain West member to earn the scholastic accolade.
 
The ABCA Team Academic Excellence Award is open to any high school or collegiate (NCAA Division I, II and III; NAIA; and junior college) team that has a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.00 on a 4.0 scale during the 2018-19 academic year. In all, a total of 301 programs received this year's award.
 
"I'm so proud of our student-athletes for this achievement," said head coach Stan Stolte. "Obviously, we want to win championships and develop guys to give them an opportunity to play professionally, but this is equally as important since over 90 percent of college baseball players don't get that chance to move on to the next level. It also helps when our staff recruits such quality kids. Alan Hott (assistant director of student-athlete academic services) deserves much of the credit getting these guys buying into the importance of graduating, and then the student-athlete showing the maturity to do it even without required study hall. We'll challenge them even more this year."
 
Previously, the Rebels had 13 members of the squad named to the Spring 2019 Academic All-MW Team, while 10 earned the Conference's Scholar-Athlete Award. James Gamble, Jacob Godman, Cameron Jabara, Donavon McCrystal, Austin Pfeifer and Jason Sharman held the distinction of claiming both accolades.
 
Moreover, McCrystal was tabbed to the CoSIDA NCAA Division I All-District 8 Team in May.