NATCHITOCHES – For the second straight day, Northwestern State junior first baseman
David Fry has been honored for his 2017 season.
This time, it comes from the Southland Conference as Fry has been named first-team Academic All-Southland Conference the league announced Thursday afternoon. The award comes one day after Fry was named to the ABCA/Rawlings All-South Central Region first team.
Fry becomes the first Demon to earn first-team academic all-conference honors since
Cort Brinson did so in 2015.
McNeese second baseman Joe Provenzano was named the Southland Conference Baseball Student-Athlete of the Year.
Fry, a Colleyville, Texas, native and Grapevine High School product, has a 3.15 cumulative grade point average and was a member of the Southland Conference Commissioner's Spring Honor Roll in each of his first two seasons.
Fry was the lone Demon selected to either of the 12-person Academic All-Southland Conference teams, which featured players from 12 of the 13 SLC member schools.
A history major, Fry produced on the field in much the same way he did in the classroom.
Fry led the Demons in batting average, doubles, home runs, RBIs, total bases (120) and slugging percentage (.591). Fry's 10 home runs made him the first Demon to reach double-figure home runs in the BBCOR era and produced the first double-figure homer season by an NSU player since 2008.
His 21 doubles are tied for second in NSU single-season history while his slugging percentage was the eighth-best in school single-season history while his total bases were tied for the 10
th most by a Demon in a single season.
Through three seasons, Fry ranks fourth on NSU's career doubles list (48) and eight in career total bases (283) and is tied for seventh in career hit by pitches (29). He needs one home run to move into a tie for 10
th place in career history and is two RBIs away from 10
th place in school history.
2017 Southland Conference Baseball All-Academic Teams
First Team
Name University Class Hometown GPA Major
Joe Provenzano
^, 1, 2, %, # McNeese Jr. Downers Grove, Ill. 3.79 Finance
Lance Miles
2, # Sam Houston State Sr. The Woodlands, Texas 3.76 Business
Mac Sceroler
1, 2 Southeastern Louisiana Jr. Denham Springs, La. 3.24 Management
Hunter Strong
1, # Central Arkansas So. Sheridan, Ark. 3.95 Undecided
Heath Donica
1 Sam Houston State Sr. Corsicana, Texas 3.15 Business
Taylor Schwaner
1 Southeastern Louisiana Jr. Slidell, La. 3.06 General Studies
Will Vest Stephen F. Austin Sr. Houston, Texas 3.36 Finance
Cullen Jozwiak Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Sr. Brenham, Texas 3.79 Kinesiology
Corey Gaconi Southeastern Louisiana So. Metairie, La. 3.82 Marketing
David Fry Northwestern State Jr. Colleyville, Texas 3.15 History
Justin McCarty Central Arkansas Gr. White Hall, Ark. 3.83 MBA
Collin Kober
3 McNeese Sr. Lake Charles, La. 3.48 Health & Human Perf.
Second Team
Name University Class Hometown GPA Major
Devin Skapura
2 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Sr. Kingsville, Texas 3.86 Kinesiology
Mark Pearson Abilene Christian Jr. Abilene, Texas 3.62 Kinesiology
Drew Avans Southeastern Louisiana Jr. Alabaster, Ala. 3.44 General Studies
Bryndan Arredondo Lamar Sr. Lubbock, Texas 3.16 Exercise Science
Bryce Tassin Southeastern Louisiana Fr. Walker, La. 3.82 Accounting
Mike Hanchar Nicholls Sr. Highland, Ind. 3.29 Business Management
Brent Janak Lamar Sr. Friendswood, Texas 3.67 Mechanical Engineering
Austin Sanders McNeese Sr. Olathe, Kan. 3.39 General Studies
Seth Ballew Sam Houston Sr. Sugar Land, Texas 3.87 Banking & Finance
Derek Scott Abilene Christian So. Abilene, Texas 3.19 Finance
Brandon Hagerla Central Arkansas Sr. Petaluma, Calif. 3.17 International Trade
Mark Whitehead UIW Sr. San Antonio, Texas 3.52 Marketing
^2017 Southland Baseball Student-Athlete of the Year
1All-Conference First Team selection
2Two-time all-academic selection
3Three-time all-academic selection
%CoSida Academic All-America
# CoSida Academic All-District
