Pitt-Johnstown senior pitcher Ben Watkins (Tire Hill, Pa.), the WVIAC and Daktronics Atlantic Region Pitcher of the Year, became the second Mountain Cat baseball player to earn named First-Team ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA Academic All-America honors when this year's teams were released on Monday. Voting was done by members of the College Sports Information Directors' of America (CoSIDA)... (CoSIDA Release)
Watkins, a graduate of Conemaugh Township Area High School, has posted a 3.93 overall G.P.A. in Electrical Engineering Technology.
Watkins joins former Pitt-Johnstown outfielder Mike Shumaker (Meyersdale, Pa.) as the only other Mountain Cat to garner First-Team Academic All-America honors. Shumaker was named to the first-team in 2001. In addition, Josh Day (Johnstown, Pa.) and Bob Ritter (Johnstown, Pa.) were named to the third-team in 2000 and 2003, respectively.
Watkins, a three-time WVIAC Pitcher of the Week recipient and a Third-Team Daktronics All-American in 2009, led Pitt-Johnstown with a 7-1 record and a .84 earned-run-average in 53.1 innings-pitched. Watkins allowed just seven runs all seasons, five of which were earned. Watkins also struck out a team-best 63, while walking only four. In this week's NCAA statistics, Watkins ranks second in the country in walks allowed per nine innings (.68), fifth in E.R.A. (.84), 19th in strikeouts per nine innings (10.64), 22nd in hits allowed per nine innings (6.59) and 50th in victories (7).
To be nominated for the Academic All-America Program, a student-athlete must be at least a sophomore with a 3.30 or higher cumulative grade-point-average and be a starter of significant reserve.
Since the program's inception in 1952, CoSIDA has bestowed Academic All-America honors on more than 14,000 student-athletes in Division I, II, III and NAIA, covering all NCAA championship sports.
