2023 CSC Academic All-District Baseball Teams
GREENWOOD, Ind. – Demonstrating both athletic and academic success in their respective careers, Academy of Art baseball's trio of graduate student pitcher
Cannon Secrist, sophomore pitcher
Brian Kraft, and senior outfielder
Hayato Niki were awarded spots on the 2023 Academic All-District Baseball Team, selected by the College Sports Communicators.
"These three players work so hard to achieve excellence in everything they attempt," said Head Coach
Dan McDermott. "We are so proud of these young men as they demonstrate what is truly means to be a student-athlete."
Student-athletes were selected by CSC members and recognized as the nation's top student-athletes for their combined performances athletically and in the classroom. To qualify for the CSC All-District Baseball Teams in Division II, a student-athlete must have compiled a cumulative grade point average of 3.50 or greater through the most-recent semester and must have completed one full calendar year at his institution (graduate students are an exception to this requirement). A total of 478 student-athletes from 146 institutions were honored. Academic All-District honorees advance to the Academic All-America ballot to be announced in June.
After posting a 3.58 cumulative GPA in the School of Communications & Media Technologies as an undergrad at Academy of Art, Secrist, the team's longest-standing veteran in 2023, closed his collegiate career on an impressive note. A three-time Academic All-PacWest honoree, two-time D2 ADA Academic Achievement Award winner, team Most Valuable Player, and
All-PacWest Third Team selection, he led the Urban Knights in complete games as well as earned run average among starters this past season while delivering a 3.63 cumulative GPA as a Communications & Media Technologies graduate student. Striking out at least 38 batters in three of his four campaigns and coming off setting the single-season record with 102 in 2022, he became the
ART U career strikeouts leader in 2023, eclipsing the record set by Assistant Coach
Nate Gercken in 2015. He was awarded the Best Individual GPA by a male student-athlete at this year's ARTYs Awards.
Following a debut season in which he led the team in ERA, Kraft paced the Urban Knights in strikeouts in 2023 while supporting a 3.58 cumulative GPA in the School of Visual Development. His 49 strikeouts were among the top 15 in the PacWest this past season and he totaled 129 punchouts in his 117.2 career innings pitched over two years with Academy of Art. The only pitcher in the conference with at least 44 innings pitched to not allow a home run in 2023, Kraft highlighted his campaign by throwing the second no-hitter in ART U history on
Apr. 1 at Concordia, a performance that earned him
PacWest Pitcher of the Week plus
NCBWA West Region and
National Pitcher of the Week.
The team's Most Valuable Player in 2023, Niki finished his collegiate career in prime form as the team's leader in batting average as well the owner of a 3.50 cumulative GPA in the School of Communications & Media Technologies. He was a two-time Academic All-PacWest selection, once the recipient of a D2 ADA Academic Achievement Award, and
All-PacWest Third Team honoree over the course of delivering the third-highest career batting average in ART U history (.316). Niki's breakout senior campaign saw him named
PacWest Player of the Week on his way to ranking among the PacWest's top 15 with a .345 batting average, 60 hits (second-most in ART U single-season history), 36 runs scored, 13 doubles, and a team-leading 18 multi-hit games.
These are the first CSC Academic All-District honors for Secrist, Kraft, and Niki in their respective careers.
