Feb. 10, 2007
The Notre Dame baseball team – one week away from its season opener – recently turned in another impressive semester in the classroom, as the 35 players combined for a 3.06 team grade-point average during the 2006 fall term (matching the team’s cumulative GPA). More than half (19) of the Irish baseball players posted a GPA of 3.0 or higher in the 2006 fall semester, including 14 at 3.2 or higher and eight who posted a GPA of 3.4-plus. Junior shortstop Brett Lilley’s impressive 3.91 GPA led the way, as one of four Irish players who topped the 3.6 mark in the ’06 fall semester.
The consistently high level of academic achievement by Notre Dame baseball players over the past 10-plus years has contributed to an stellar graduation rate, as all 71 of the program’s four-year players since 1995 have graduated from Notre Dame (14 others who signed professionally as juniors or sophomores have returned to compplete or near completion of their degrees). The NCAA’s most recent release (fall ’06) of its Graduation Success Rate numbers – based upon the entering classes from 1996 to 1999 – recognized the Notre Dame baseball program with a perfect 100 score in those GSR numbers, which were created in 2005 to more accurately reflect actual graduation rates by including transfer data in the calculation.
Lilley is a leading Academic All-America candidate, carrying a 3.78 cumulative GPA as an accounting major. Despite not having the advantage of attending summer school in 2006 – he instead was playing in the prestigous Cape Cod League, with the Cotuit Kettleers – Lilley still shouldered an overloaded schedule of 39 credits spanning the 2006 spring and fall semesters, registering 12 solid A grades and one B-plus in those 13 courses. His 4.0 in-season GPA during the 2006 spring semester covered an 18-credit courseload while he most recently finished a 21-credit fall term with a 3.91 GPA. Lilley’s 28 total courses at Notre Dame have included 18 A grades and five A-minuses, plus three B-plus grades, one straight B and a B-minus (in a philosophy class during his first semester).
The Notre Dame baseball program’s rich tradition of high achievers includes 19 previous players who have combined for Acadeemic All-America honors 24 times. The current decade alone has seen Irish baseball players combine for 10 Academic All-America honors, most recently by 2006 senior Greg Lopez (who became the program’s first shortstop to be so honored). Should Lilley duplicate Lopez’s feat, he would follow in the foosteps of his sister Tricia Lilley, who was a 2006 third team Academic All-American while serving as a fifth-year shortstop with the Purdue softball team (she owned a 3.75 cumulative GPA, as a business management major.
Several other Irish players could emerge as top Academic All-America candidates in 2007, with those players including graduate student Matt Weglarz, junior lefthanded pitcher Wade Korpi and sophomore righthanded pitcher David Phelps. Weglarz – a veteran catcher/first baseman – graduated from Missouri State in May of 2006 with a 3.48 cumulative GPA (as a business major) and most recently posted a 3.42 during his first semester enrolled in Notre Dame’s highly-regared MBA program. Kopri carries a 3.24 cumulative GPA as an anthropology major, following a 3.38 in the ’06 fall term, while Phelps is a 3.36 student as a double major in political science and computer applications (he had a 3.27 GPA in the fall of ’06).
Senior catcher Sean Gaston (3.38 cumulative GPA/3.47 in ’06 fall semester; double major in history and political science) also would have been a leading Academic All-America candidate in 2007, if not for his recent shoulder surgery that will sideline him for the season.
In addition to Lilley, others who posted top GPAs during the 2006 fall semester included senior centerfielder Danny Dressman (3.73; double major in history and computer applications), senior righthander Dan Kapala (3.61; economics major) and freshman outfielder Brayden Ashdown (3.67;all freshman are enrolled in the First Year of Studies). The four others who topped the 3.4 mark in the 2006 fall term were Weglarz, Gaston, junior righthander Joey Williamson (3.47; political science/computer applications) and freshman infielder Dylan Blake (3.47).
Six other Irish baseball players registered 2006 fall GPAs above 3.2: Korpi, Phelps, senior LHP/1B Mike Dury (3.33; economics/computer applications), freshman RHP Eric Maust (3.27) and freshman infielders Herman Petzold (3.35) and Will Harford (3.20).
Rounding out the 19 Irish players who posted GPAs above 3.0 in the ’06 fall semester were junior 2B/C Ross Brezovsky (economics/computer applications), junior catcher Chris Soriano (science pre-professional studies), sophomore infielder Jeremy Barnes (anthropology), sophomore LHP Sam Elam (anthropology/computer applications) and freshman catcher Ryan Smith.
The players listed above are spread out among the classes, with six freshmen, five juniors, four seniors and three sophomores (plus the grad. student Weglarz).