THE FLATS – Recognized as one of the country’s top student-athletes for his combined performance on the field and in the classroom, Georgia Tech baseball sophomore Michael Guldberg was selected to the Google Cloud Academic All-America First Team, the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) announced Thursday.
Guldberg is only the 11th baseball player at Tech to earn the honor and just the fourth player to be a first-team selection, joining Nomar Garciaparra (1994), L.J. Yankosky (1997-98) and Mark Teixeira (2000).
One of two ACC players on the first team, the Yellow Jacket earned a 3.91 GPA this year, entering his second year in the industrial engineering program at Georgia Tech. He joins the top 34 student-athletes from around Division I on the three teams, with 26 members having at least a 3.90 GPA. The average GPA of the 12-member first team is 3.98.
On the field, Guldberg has been both a utility infielder for Georgia Tech and the team’s primary designated hitter. He finished the season tied for second in the ACC in hitting (.361) and sixth in runs scored (61). The Marietta, Ga. native also finished in the top 10 of the league with a team-leading 78 hits and eight sacrifice bunts.
Guldberg has had multiple clutch moments this season for the Yellow Jackets. His walk-off sacrifice fly in the bottom of the ninth against then-No. 9 North Carolina marked the third of four walk-off wins for Tech. Guldberg then shined in the ACC Tournament semifinals when he his first home run of the season – a three-run moonshot – broke the 1-1 standstill against then-No. 13 NC State, powering Tech to its 13th appearance in the ACC Championship Game and first since 2014.
Guldberg is the first academic all-American selection for Tech since 2013 when outfielder Brandon Thomas earned the honor. Others to earn the honor at Tech include current MLB Big Leaguers Charlie Blackmon (2008) and Derek Dietrich (2009-10).
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