McNeese’s Joe Provenzano is Baseball Student-Athlete of the Year

6/15/2017 2:08:48 PM

FRISCO, Texas - McNeese baseball player Joe Provenzano was selected as the 2017 Southland Conference Baseball Student-Athlete of the Year, the league announced Thursday along with its All-Academic teams.

The second baseman compiled a 3.79 grade point average as a finance major this year while helping lead the Cowboys to their first Southland championship since 2006.

Provenzano was named a CoSIDA Academic All-American earlier this month. He is a two-time first-team All-Southland Conference selection, including this season, and a former Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American.

The Downers Grove, Ill. (Downers Grove North High School), native ranked second on the team in hitting in 2017 with a .336 batting average while also hitting six home runs and knocking in 54, tied for second on the team. Starting in 56 games on the year, Provenzano hit safely in 46 of those 56 contests and had multiple hits in 20 games.

In addition to Provenzano, McNeese had two other players named to the 24-person team. Collin Kober -- a three-time All-Academic selection - is on the first team, while Austin Sanders is a second-team pick.

Conference regular season runner up Southeastern Louisiana paced the way with five players. The Lions' first-team selections include league Player of the Year Taylor Schwaner. He's joined by Mac Sceroler, another first-team All-Conference pick who was the first Southland Conference player taken Tuesday in the 2017 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft (fifth round by Cincinnati). The two are joined on the first team by Corey Gaconi, while Southeastern Louisiana's Drew Avans and Bryce Tassin are second-team selections.

Sam Houston State and Central Arkansas also had three picks each. The Bearkats' Lance Miles is now a two-time selection on the heels of being named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District Baseball Team in May. Miles is joined on the first team by Sam Houston's All-Conference pitcher Heath Donica, a 21st-round pick of the Oakland A's. Another Sam Houston standout hurler, Seth Ballew, is a second team All-Academic selection.

Central Arkansas' Hunter Strong adds All-Academic honors to a trophy case that already includes First-Team All-Conference recognition and a CoSIDA Academic All-District selection. The Bears' Justin McCarty was also tabbed for the first team, and teammate Brandon Hagerla is honored on the second team.

Texas A&M-Corpus Christi's Cullen Jozwiak was named to the first team, while Devin Skapura headlines the second team with his second All-Academic selection.

Abilene Christian had two players selected in Mark Pearson and Derek Scott, as does Lamar with Bryndan Arredondo and Brent Janak.

The following Southland schools also have student-athletes receiving All-Academic recognition: Three-time All-Conference pick David Fry from Northwestern State; 2017 All-Conference selection Will Vest of Stephen F. Austin, who was drafted by the Detroit Tigers on Wednesday (12th round); Mike Hanchar, Nicholls; and UIW's Mark Whitehead.

The All-Academic teams are voted on by head coaches, sports information directors and academic and compliance staff members from each Southland Conference institution. Student-athletes must possess a 3.0 cumulative GPA, have completed one full academic year at the nominating institution and participated in at least 50 percent of the team's competition to qualify for All-Academic selection, excluding pitchers. Nominees who were also named to the All-Conference First Team or CoSIDA Academic All-District team are automatically named Southland All-Academic.

The Southland Conference awards committee, which consists of one administrator from each of the 13 member schools, votes for the Student-Athlete of the Year. The Southland Student-Athlete of the Year award is presented to one student-athlete who achieves excellence in both academics and athletics. All nominees must have earned at least a 3.2 GPA on a 4.0 scale and demonstrated athletics achievement for at least two years at the nominating institution.

First Team
Name	University	Class	Hometown	GPA	Major
Joe Provenzano^{^, 1, 2, %, #}	McNeese	Jr.	Downers Grove, Ill.	3.79	Finance
Lance Miles^{2, #}	Sam Houston State	Sr.	The Woodlands, Texas	3.76	Business
Mac Sceroler ^{1, 2}	Southeastern Louisiana	Jr.	Denham Springs, La.	3.24	Management
Hunter Strong ^{1, #}	Central Arkansas	So.	Sheridan, Ark.	3.95	Undecided
Heath Donica ¹	Sam Houston State	Sr.	Corsicana, Texas	3.15	Business
Taylor Schwaner ¹	Southeastern Louisiana	Jr.	Slidell, La.	3.06	Gen. Studies
Will Vest	Stephen F. Austin	Sr.	Houston, Texas	3.36	Finance
Cullen Jozwiak	Texas A&M-Corpus Christi	Sr.	Brenham, Texas	3.79	Kinesiology
Corey Gaconi	Southeastern Louisiana	So.	Metairie, La.	3.82	Marketing
David Fry	Northwestern State	Jr.	Colleyville, Texas	3.15	History
Justin McCarty	Central Arkansas	Gr.	White Hall, Ark.	3.83	MBA
Collin Kober ³	McNeese	Sr.	Lake Charles, La.	3.48	Human Perf.

Second Team Name	University	Class	Hometown	GPA	Major
Devin Skapura ²	Texas A&M-Corpus Christi	Sr.	Kingsville, Texas	3.86	Kinesiology
Mark Pearson	Abilene Christian	Jr.	Abilene, Texas	3.62	Kinesiology
Drew Avans	Southeastern Louisiana	Jr.	Alabaster, Ala.	3.44	Gen. Studies
Bryndan Arredondo	Lamar	Sr.	Lubbock, Texas	3.16	Exer. Science
Bryce Tassin	Southeastern Louisiana	Fr.	Walker, La.	3.82	Accounting
Mike Hanchar	Nicholls	Sr.	Highland, Ind.	3.29	Bus. Mgmnt.
Brent Janak	Lamar	Sr.	Friendswood, Texas	3.67	Mech. Engin.
Austin Sanders	McNeese	Sr.	Olathe, Kan.	3.39	Gen. Studies
Seth Ballew	Sam Houston State	Sr.	Sugar Land, Texas	3.87	Banking & Fin.
Derek Scott	Abilene Christian	So.	Abilene, Texas	3.19	Finance
Brandon Hagerla	Central Arkansas	Sr.	Petaluma, Calif.	3.17	Intl. Trade
Mark Whitehead	UIW	Sr.	San Antonio, Texas	3.52	Marketing

¹All-Conference First Team selection
²Two-time all-academic selection
³Three-time all-academic selection
^%CoSida Academic All-America
^# CoSida Academic All-District