June 28, 2010
GREENSBORO, N.C. – Georgia Tech junior shortstop Derek Dietrich has been named the 2010 Atlantic Coast Conference Baseball Scholar-Athlete of the Year and heads up a list of five Yellow Jackets named to the All-ACC Academic Baseball Team, as announced Monday by Commissioner John D. Swofford.
The junior Management major becomes the school’s first ever recipient of the ACC Baseball Scholar Athlete of the Year Award, which began its recognition in 2007. He carried a 4.0 GPA during the spring semester and a cumulative GPA of 3.50 in three years on The Flats. A two-time ESPN TheMagazine/CoSIDA Academic All-American, Dietrich has twice been named to the ACC Academic Honor Roll and is a two-time All-ACC Academic Team selection.
The Parma, Ohio, native received Georgia Tech’s 2010 Male Scholar-Athlete Award and was inducted into the Chi Alpha Sigma Honor Society, which recognizes student-athletes nationally who are at least a junior in class standing and have maintained at least a 3.40 GPA.
“I am extremely happy to earn the award,” said Dietrich, who is currently playing professionally with the Hudson Valley Renegades. “Not only did I become a better baseball player under head coach Danny Hall, but I became a better student because of the graces of the professors, academic advisors and the staff at Georgia Tech. I am extremely grateful for everything that people did for me, and I am proud to say that I was a Yellow Jacket.”
On the diamond, Dietrich batted .350 during the 2010 season with 17 home runs and 61 RBIs while earning first-team All-ACC honors and third-team All-America honors from Baseball America. Dietrich was a semifinalist for the Brooks Wallace Award, which is given annually to the nation’s top college shortstop. He was drafted in the second round of the 2010 Major League Baseball Player Draft by the Tampa Bay Rays as the 79th overall selection.
Joining Dietrich on the All-ACC Academic team from Tech were senior Jay Dantzler, senior Tony Plagman, junior Cole Leonida and Sophomore Jacob Esch. The Jackets have had at least four players named to the squad every year since the ACC began recognition in 2006.
Plagman was named to the team for the fourth time in his career, more than any other player on the list. The senior first baseman was a finalist for the 2010 Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award, honoring the nation’s top senior student-athlete. Plagman was named to the Lowe’s Senior All-America First Team, and to the Louisville Slugger All-America Third Team.
Dantzler, Leonida and Esch all earned their first career All-ACC Academic honors.
Five student-athletes featured on the All-ACC Academic team were also named to at least one All-America team this past season (Florida State’s Holt, Georgia Tech’s Dietrich and Plagman, Miami’s Hernandez and Virginia’s Hultzen).
To be eligible for consideration, a student-athlete must have earned a 3.00 grade point average for the previous semester and maintained a 3.00 cumulative average during his academic career.
