AUSTIN, Texas – Three Sun Belt baseball student-athletes were named to the Google Cloud Academic All-America® Baseball Team, announced Thursday by the College Sports Information Directors of America.
Georgia State's Rhett Harper and Little Rock's Riley Pittman were named to the Second Team while Coastal Carolina's Zach Biermann was named to the Third Team.
The Google Cloud Academic All-America® Baseball Team recognizes the nation's top student-athletes for their combined performances on the field and in the classroom. The Google Cloud Academic All-America® program separately recognizes baseball honorees in four divisions — NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III, and NAIA.
Harper's selection to the second team gives the Georgia State baseball program seven Academic All-America® honorees since 2013. The senior from Chatsworth, Ga., has the highest grade point average on the Academic All-America® Baseball Team. He graduated this semester with a 4.16 GPA in finance.
Harper hit .288 with two home runs and 13 RBI in 80 at-bats, despite batting for the first time in three years. Also a right-handed relief pitcher, he returned to the outfield at midseason to help bolster the lineup. He began his career as an outfielder but moved to the mound in 2016, serving as the team's closer in 2017 before missing the 2018 season due to elbow surgery.
Pittman, a marketing major that holds a 3.74 GPA, was a 2019 First Team All-Sun Belt selection after leading the Trojans with a .325 batting average, ranking fourth in the Sun Belt in slugging percentage (.604) and sixth in the league in home runs (14).
The North Richland Hills, Texas native leaves Little Rock as the Trojans’ all-time leader in home runs with 27, ranking second all-time in program history in RBI (116) and plate appearances (613) and is third all-time in games played at 175. Pittman also ranks seventh all-time in career hits (173) with 21 doubles in a Trojan uniform.
A sociology major, Biermann recently graduated magna cum laude in May 2019 with his bachelor’s degree. He is a two-time President’s List (4.0 GPA) member and a two-time Dean’s List member (3.5 GPA or higher).
Drafted by the Houston Astros with the 706th overall pick in the 2019 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft, Biermann led the Sun Belt in RBIs with 82 in 2019. He ranked second in the conference in hits (81), second in home runs (18), third in total bases (146), fourth in sacrifice flies (7), ninth in slugging percentage (.564) and 10th in runs scored (54).
For his career at CCU, the Wisconsin native hit .308 with 31 home runs, tied for ninth all-time in Coastal history. In addition, Biermann had 25 doubles and 111 runs scored. He drove in 139 RBIs, tied for 18th all-time in school history, while his .563 career slugging percentage ranks eighth all-time in CCU history.
Google Cloud Academic All-America® Second Team Selections
IF - Rhett Harper, Georgia State University - 4.16 - Sr. - Finance
DH - Riley Pittman, University of Arkansas at Little Rock - 3.74 - Sr. - Marketing
Google Cloud Academic All-America® Third Team Selections
IF - Zach Biermann, Coastal Carolina University - 3.94 - Sr. - Sociology