2017 CoSIDA Division III Academic All-America Baseball Team
AUSTIN, Texas – Recent graduate Connor Tom (Reinholds, Pa./Conrad Weiser) been named to the 2017 Academic All-America Division III Baseball Team, as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), it was announced Wednesday.
Tom, who earned first-team recognition, became the first Gettysburg College baseball player to capture multiple Academic All-America honors after landing a spot on the third team last season. He also becomes the first baseball player to pocket first-team Academic All-America recognition.
Tom was one of 35 student-athletes to make the team, which included just four from schools located in Pennsylvania. The only representative on the team from the Centennial Conference, he captured a spot on the Academic All-America ballot by making the Academic All-District 4 First Team last month.
The honor adds to an impressive list of postseason academic awards for Tom this spring. He was also named the Centennial Conference (CC) Baseball Scholar-Athlete of the Year, and he captured a spot on the Academic All-Centennial Conference Team.
Tom enjoyed a prolific senior campaign on the diamond, batting .358 and collecting 15 doubles, four triples, three home runs, and 94 total bases – tying him for third in school history – while earning All-Centennial Conference honorable mention. He also accumulated 37 runs scored, 62 hits, and 39 RBIs. Starting all 41 games in leftfield, Tom closed the season and his career on a tear, posting a 12-game hitting streak while batting .442 over the stretch.
In one of his top performances of the season, Tom went 4-for-5 in a win over Messiah, and he was also 3-for-5 with two doubles and four RBIs versus Haverford. He blasted his first career grand slam to spark the team in a critical late-season win at McDaniel, and he also homered versus Johns Hopkins in the Centennial Conference tournament. He finished the regular season second in the conference in both RBIs and doubles.
The senior captain led Gettysburg to its sixth-straight 20-win season and a spot in the conference playoffs this spring. For his career, Tom batted .346 and finished eighth in school history in hits (159), ninth in total bases (224), tied for fifth in doubles (35), and tied for ninth in triples (nine). He was also named All-Centennial Conference First Team and ABCA All-Region Second Team in 2015.
Off the field, Tom was a biology major who interned in the Radiology department at Penn State Health St. Joseph, and he has also served as a Medical/Surgical Unit volunteer at St. Joseph Medical Center. In addition, he served as the Scholarship Chair of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity.
To be eligible for CoSIDA Academic All-America consideration, a student-athlete must be a varsity starter or key reserve, maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.3, have reached sophomore athletic and academic standings at his/her current institution and be nominated by his/her sports information director.
Centennial Conference First-Team Academic All-America Baseball
- 1998 - Todd Flannery, Johns Hopkins, P
- 1998 - John Christ, Johns Hopkins, OF
- 1999 - John Christ, Johns Hopkins, OF
- 2004 - Rob Morrison, Johns Hopkins, OF
- 2008 - Rob Pietroforte, Johns Hopkins, OF
- 2010 - John Swarr, Johns Hopkins, C
- 2013 - Ryan Zakszeski, Johns Hopkins, C
- 2017 - Connor Tom, Gettysburg, OF