By: Jason Pugh, Assistant Sports Information Director
NATCHITOCHES – The two Northwestern State baseball players who were chosen in this past week's Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft were more than just standouts on the field.
Right-handed pitcher
Nathan Jones and shortstop
Caleb Ricca also stood out in the classroom, earning second-team Academic All-Southland Conference honors, which were announced by the league Tuesday afternoon.
It is the first academic honors for both players.
"Both of those guys took care of their business on the field and in the classroom," said head coach
Bobby Barbier, who concluded his third season in May. "I'm proud of them for working hard on and off the field and being rewarded for it."
Jones, a senior from Shreveport's Loyola College Prep, finished his academic career with a 3.41 grade point average, earning his undergraduate degree in business administration in May.
On the field, the right-hander went 7-4 with a team-leading 2.78 ERA and 80 strikeouts in 81 innings, earning second-team All-Southland Conference honors. Jones concluded his career ranked in the top 10 in four different statistical categories.
The New York Mets' fifth-round draft selection ended his NSU baseball career tied for second in career starts (44), fourth in strikeouts (223), fifth in innings pitched (308) and sixth in appearances (65).
Jones also was the lone Southland Conference starter to throw multiple complete-game shutouts in the 2019 season, tossing back-to-back, sub-100-pitch shutouts against McNeese (April 20) and at Stephen F. Austin (April 26).
Jones finished the season 37
th nationally in complete games (2), 57
t in WHIP (1.05), 70
th in hits per nine innings (6.67) and 96
th in ERA (2.78).
Ricca carried a 3.33 grade point average as a business administration major while starting all 55 games at shortstop.
A product of Dutchtown High School, Ricca led the Southland Conference with 24 stolen bases, a total that tied for him for 10
th in school single-season history and placed him 50
th nationally, en route to earning third-team All-Southland honors at shortstop.
Ricca concluded his Demons career ranked ninth in doubles (38) and 10
th in stolen bases (47). In his junior season, Ricca led Northwestern State in doubles (17), extra-base hits (25), total bases (105) and on-base percentage (.405) and shared the team lead in triples (3).
He started the final 150 games of his college career, dating to March 25, 2017.
2019 Southland Conference Baseball All-Academic First Team
| Name |
School |
Cl. |
GPA |
Major |
| Corey Gaconi*2^$ |
Southeastern Louisiana |
Sr. |
3.92 |
Marketing |
| Sean Arnold* |
UIW |
Jr. |
3.42 |
Sport Management |
| Eddy Gonzalez* |
UIW |
Sr. |
3.34 |
Management |
| Ryan Gonzalez* |
UIW |
Sr. |
3.05 |
Kinesiology |
| Tyler Miller^ |
UIW |
Gr. |
4.00 |
Accounting |
| Bryan King^$ |
McNeese |
Sr. |
4.00 |
Natural Resource Conservation Mgmt. |
| Reeves Martin* |
New Orleans |
Jr. |
3.01 |
Human Performance & Health Promotion |
| Dane Simon^ |
Nicholls |
So. |
3.95 |
Business Administration |
| Hayden Wesneski*2 |
Sam Houston State |
Jr. |
3.78 |
Accounting |
| Kyle Schimpf^ |
Southeastern Louisiana |
Sr. |
3.86 |
General Studies |
| Itchy Burts*2 |
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi |
Jr. |
3.69 |
Mechanical Engineering |
| Cody Davenport |
Central Arkansas |
Sr. |
3.33 |
Physical Education/Teacher Education |
2019 Southland Conference Baseball All-Academic Second Team
| Name |
School |
Cl. |
GPA |
Major |
| Nick Mikolajchak2 |
Sam Houston State |
Jr. |
3.91 |
General Business |
| Nathan Jones |
Northwestern State |
Sr. |
3.41 |
Business Administration |
| Luke Marbach |
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi |
Jr. |
4.00 |
Kinesiology |
| Jared Biddy |
Southeastern Louisiana |
Sr. |
3.50 |
General Studies |
| Bryce Tassin |
Southeastern Louisiana |
Jr. |
3.87 |
Accounting |
| Caleb Ricca |
Northwestern State |
Jr. |
3.33 |
Business Administration |
| Jason Blanchard |
Lamar |
Sr. |
3.31 |
Economics |
| Dalon Farkas2 |
Abilene Christian |
Sr. |
3.40 |
Accounting |
| Ryan Flores |
UIW |
So. |
3.43 |
Rehabilitative Sciences |
| Jacob Bedevian |
Nicholls |
Sr. |
3.15 |
Business Administration |
| Gavin Stone |
Central Arkansas |
So. |
3.10 |
Physical Education/Teacher Education |
| Mason Knopp |
Southeastern Louisiana |
Sr. |
3.53 |
General Studies |
*
First Team All-Conference
2 Two-time all-academic selection
^ Google Cloud Academic All-District
$ Google Cloud Academic All-American
