Balentina Named to America East Baseball All-Academic Team
6/14/2012 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
ORONO, Maine -- University of Maine senior pitcher Jonathan Balentina (Willemstad, Curacao) was named to the 2012 America East All-Academic Team on Thursday afternoon. It is the second America East All-Academic Team selection for Balentina, who also earned the honor in 2009.
Balentina is a graduate student in Civil Engineering with an impressive academic resume. He is a four-time Maine Scholar-Athlete Award winner, who has been named to the America East Commissioner's Academic Honor Roll for achieving a 3.5 grade point average or higher. Balentina has been named to Team Maine, for having the highest grade point average on the baseball team. In addition, he has been named to the Dean's List and earned the Presidential Achievement Award.
As a senior, Balentina saw action in 16 games on the mound for the Black Bears, making three starts. He finished with a record of 3-2 with a 7.06 ERA. He earned wins over Boston College of the ACC and then 16th ranked Clemson in the season-opener. Both of his loses came to Stony Brook, who is currently ranked seventh in the nation and competing in the College World Series in Omaha. Balentina struck out 23 batters on the season.
The All-Academic squads are a product of the June 2005 Athletics Directors meeting where faculty representatives and athletics directors from each of the conference's nine member institutions decided to honor the league's top student-athletes, who excel equally in the classroom as they do on the playing field.
For the fourth straight year, America East has chosen the All-Academic teams using CoSIDA's Academic All-America program as a model. Student-athletes worthy of consideration are nominated by member sports information directors and voted on by a committee of SIDs, academic advisers and faculty representatives from all nine member institutions.
All-Academic squads for team sports are based on the number of athletes that participate in a contest at one time but can be more if there is a tie in voting. To be nominated for the distinction, student-athletes must be a starter or important reserve for their team and participate in at least 50 percent of their team's games or competitions. In the classroom, student-athletes must have a 3.30 GPA and have completed at least one calendar year at their institution. Freshmen are not
eligible for consideration.
-U-M-
