Cullowhee, N.C. – Western Carolina baseball earned the 2025-26 American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) Team Academic Excellence Award, presented by Sports Attack and announced today by the coaches' organization. It's the fourth consecutive season that the Catamounts have received the national honor under head coach Alan Beck.
 
Teams from every level of college and high school baseball were honored with this year's award, which recognizes programs coached by ABCA members that achieved a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher on a 4.0 scale for the 2025-26 academic year.
 
With an award history dating back to the 2015-16 academic year, this marks the fourth time that WCU has been nominated and received the Excellence Award, each coming in consecutive seasons.
 
More than 800 member programs, including nearly 500 collegiate and more than 320 high school programs nationwide, received the 2025-26 award from the ABCA. Five teams from the Southern Conference were recognized, including ETSU, Mercer, UNCG, and Wofford, joining WCU by posting team GPAs of at least 3.0 last year. WCU was among eight NCAA Division I teams from the state of North Carolina to receive the recognition.
 
Under head coach and program alum Alan Beck, the Diamond Catamounts posted a team GPA of 3.267 for the 2025-26 academic year, marking an eighth straight semester above a 3.0. WCU also saw 34 players appear on the 2025-26 SoCon Academic Honor Roll, and 11 student-athletes named to the 2026 Spring Academic All-SoCon team. Seven Catamounts received 2026 SoCon Commissioner's Medals, with two posting 4.0 GPAs last year.
 
Additionally, four Catamounts – sophomore outfielder Walker Fox, redshirt freshman outfielder Jaylen Jones, redshirt sophomore designated hitter Wyatt Stanley, and fifth-year infielder Trent Turner – were also each named to the College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-District team in early June. Turner earned his third career selection to the honorary academic district team.
 
Coaches were able to nominate their teams for the ABCA Team Academic Excellence Award following the conclusion of their spring semesters. To be honored, teams had to meet the following criteria:
 
-Must be a high school or college team;
-Head coach must be a current ABCA member;
-Team must have a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.00 on a 4.0 scale during the 2025-26 academic year.
 
The American Baseball Coaches Association has a long tradition of recognizing the achievements of baseball coaches and student-athletes. The ABCA/Rawlings All-America Teams are the nation's oldest, founded in 1949, and the ABCA's awards program also includes the ABCA/Rawlings All-Region Awards, the ABCA/ATEC Regional & National Coaches of the Year, and several other major awards such as the ABCA Hall of Fame and the Dave Keilitz Ethics in Coaching Award.
 
Keep track of everything related to Catamount baseball and WCU Athletics through social media outlets on Facebook (fb.com/CatamountSports), Twitter (@Catamounts, @CatamountBSB), and Instagram (wcu_catamounts, catamountbsb).
 
Western Carolina Baseball – Academic Excellence Awards:
2025-26 – 3.267 Team GPA
2024-25 – 3.256 Team GPA
2023-24 – 3.226 Team GPA
2022-23 – 3.115 Team GPA