SHSU’s Azar named SLC Baseball Student Athlete of the Year

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FRISCO, Texas – Sam Houston State senior Anthony Azar has been named the Southland Conference Baseball Student-Athlete of the Year, the league office announced Tuesday in conjunction with the release of the All-Academic Baseball Teams.
 
Azar, a native of The Woodlands, Texas (The Woodlands H.S.), is a geology major with a 3.45 grade-point average. He is the third Sam Houston baseball student-athlete to earn this distinction, joining Jake Arrington (2012) and Luke Prihoda (2007). Azar is a Dean’s List student and was tabbed Sam Houston’s men’s “Student-Athlete of the Year” for the 2013-14 academic season. He is making his second appearance on the all-academic team.
 
Azar led the league in total bases (127) and ranked second in the Southland in hits (86), RBI (49) and slugging percentage (.543) and third in batting average (.368), home runs (nine) and on-base percentage (.450), on his way to being named the league’s top player. Azar, a three-time all-conference selection, was a semifinalist for the Johnny Bench Award, an honor that is given to the top Division I catcher. Azar hit .397 in league play to help the Bearkats win their final 12 regular-season conference games en route to claiming their third consecutive conference title and NCAA playoff berth.
 
Six student-athletes make a return appearance to the all-academic teams, including Lamar seniors Jude Vidrine and Chase Angelle making their third appearance while Azar, McNeese State junior Andrew Guillotte and senior Connor Lloyd and Sam Houston junior Tyler Eppler are making their second all-academic team.
 
A total of 11 student-athletes were automatically named to the conference all-academic teams by virtue of being either a first-team all-conference selection or voted to the CoSIDA academic all-district team.
 
The league placed four student-athletes on the Capital One Academic All-District teams. Guillotte and Southeastern Louisiana sophomore Jameson Fisher both earned a spot on the All-District 6 team while Texas A&M-Corpus Christi senior Russell Vaughn and UIW senior Jason Stone were named to the All-District 7 team. Vaughn was also selected as an academic all-American. Azar, Central Arkansas senior Doug Votolato, McNeese seniors Jackson Gooch and Chayse Marion, Oral Roberts senior Tyler Boss, Southeastern junior Andro Cutura and A&M-Corpus Christi Brandon Tierney all earned their spot on the team after picking up first-team all-conference honors.
 
Twelve league teams had at least one representative on the all-academic team with McNeese leading the way with five selections. Southeastern had three all-academic honorees while Houston Baptist, UIW, Lamar, Nicholls, Sam Houston and A&M-Corpus Christi each had two. UCA, New Orleans, Northwestern State and ORU all had one apiece.
 
Established in the 2002-03 academic year, the conference honors one student-athlete from each of the 17 championship sports who achieves excellence in academics, athletics and community/campus service.
 
The student-athlete of the year, selected by the league’s awards committee, must have attained athletics achievement for at least two years at the nominating institution, possess at least a 3.20 cumulative GPA and demonstrate extracurricular service at his campus and or community.
 
The all-academic teams are voted on by the head coaches, sports information directors and academic/compliance administrators from each Southland university. 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 the all-academic squad.

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