Complete Academic All-District Baseball Team

Courtesy of CNU Athletic Communications

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. -- While leading the nation in home runs and helping pace the Captains' torrid offense, Christopher Newport University senior Nicholas Baham (Smithfield, Va.) also leads the way in the classroom and was recognized as a 2019 Google Cloud Academic All-District® selection by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). Released last week, CoSIDA announced Baham as just the second CNU baseball player to ever earn Academic All-District honors.

The award recognizes the nation's top student-athletes for their combined performances on the field and in the classroom. The organization recognizes baseball honorees in four divisions - NCAA Division I, II, III, and NAIA - and divides the student-athletes into eight geographic districts across the United States and Canada. 

Baham joins Craig Johnson as the only CNU baseball players to earn the recognition, while he becomes one of five Captains to collect the honor in 2018-19. 

The senior first baseman carried a cumulative GPA of 3.52 into the nomination period, while majoring in Finance. On the field, he hits clean up for one of the NCAA's top offenses and leads the nation in home runs with 19 while ranking third in runs batted in with 60. His historical performance has included shattering the conference record for home runs in a season and career while also taking over the top spot on CNU's single season home run list. 

A first team All-Conference selection this year, Baham has put together one of the finest individual seasons in program history. The slugger is hitting .324 with 52 runs scored and 60 RBI with 27 extra-base hits. While his power bat paces the offense in 42 games played this season, his glove has been exceptional with a .994 fielding percentage in 318 total chances at first base. 

After helping lead the Captains to their first ever CAC championship this weekend, Baham and the rest of the team is headed to the NCAA Regionals for the 10th time in program history. 

First team Academic All District® honorees, like Baham, advance to the Google Cloud Academic All-America® ballot. First-, second-, and third-team Academic All-America® Baseball honorees will be announced on June 5.