AUSTIN, Texas – After a strong season on the field and in the classroom in 2020-21, three Louisiana Tech Baseball student-athletes earned Academic All-America honors. Bulldogs
Steele Netterville,
Hunter Wells and
Jonathan Fincher all earned 2020-21 CoSIDA Division I Academic All-America accolades, as announced by the College Sports Information Directors of America on Thursday.
With three of the 33 total CoSIDA Academic All-America honorees, LA Tech tied Stanford for the Division I program with the most selections in 2020-21. Thursday's news marks the first time in LA Tech Athletics history that three Tech student-athletes have earned Academic All-America honors in one academic year. The last time a Louisiana Tech program had multiple Academic All-Americans from the same team was in 1999.
The trio of Netterville, Wells and Fincher notches LA Tech Baseball's second, third and fourth Academic All-Americans, respectively, and the first since 2010.
"Of all the accomplishments of the 2021 team, this one makes me the most proud," head coach
Lane Burroughs said. "In my opinion, making the Academic All-American Team is one of the hardest things for a student-athlete to accomplish. You have to be very skilled and disciplined in both academics and your sport of choice.
"We have had one player in the history of our program make this team and to have three young men make it in the same year is just remarkable. I am so proud of Hunter, Steele and Finch. These guys are remarkable young men with high character and tremendous makeup. Guys that take care of their business off the field and in the classroom more times than not show up and produce on the field. I also want to recognize the hard work of
Amber Burdge and her staff. Major props to
Ryan Amodei and his non-stop effort of keeping our guys on task and monitoring their academic progress and also
Tyler Hotz, our baseball communications director, for putting in the work and gathering information to make sure these young men had a chance to be recognized."
Netterville, a two-time CoSIDA First Team Academic All-District 6 honoree, earned CoSIDA First Team Academic All-America accolades at the designated hitter position. The Shreveport native was named to the C-USA Commissioner's Honor Roll, a C-USA Academic Medalist and was one of two Bulldogs to earn a spot on the C-USA All-Academic Team earlier this year.
Netterville recently graduated from Louisiana Tech with a degree in biology with a 3.92 GPA. He was also accepted into medical school at LSU-Shreveport in May.
The power hitter slugged 12 home runs and drove in 57 runs despite missing 10 games due to injury. Netterville had 17 multi-hit games and 15 multi-RBI games to help power an explosive Bulldogs' offense. He was tabbed the C-USA Hitter of the Week on March 29 after batting .368 with eight RBI, two doubles, two home runs and five runs scored in a 4-1 week against ULM and at Southern Miss.
Wells, who earned four All-America honors following a standout final year for the Bulldogs, earned CoSIDA Second Team Academic All-America accolades. The Katy, Texas native was one of four infielders selected to the second team after earning his first CoSIDA First Team Academic All-District 6 honor earlier this month.
Wells earned both his undergraduate degree in supply chain management and his master's in business administration from Louisiana Tech. Tech's all-time hits leader graduated with a cumulative GPA of 3.55 while completing his MBA.
The former Tech third baseman broke his own single-season hits record with 101 hits in 2021, becoming the first Bulldog to surpass the century mark in one season. Wells led Conference USA in batting average (.385), hits (101) and total bases (169) while posting a team-best OPS of 1.101. He strung together a 20-game hitting streak in 2021 en route to tallying a team-best 31 multi-hit games.
Fincher, who was named an NCBWA Third Team All-American in June, earned CoSIDA Third Team Academic All-America honors. Fincher, another C.E. Byrd High School alumnus from Shreveport, was one of just six pitchers selected among the three CoSIDA Academic All-America squads.
Along with Wells, Fincher earned his first CoSIDA First Team Academic All-District 6 honor earlier this month. The left-hander recently graduated from Louisiana Tech with a degree in biology with a 3.89 GPA.
LA Tech's Friday night starter ranked fourth in the C-USA with a 3.05 ERA and a .219 opposing batting average against him. He hurled three complete games on the mound, two of which came in shutout fashion. Fincher twice earned C-USA Pitcher of the Week accolades during a stretch of nine straight quality starts from March 5 against McNeese State to April 30 against Middle Tennessee.
Before Thursday, Louisiana Tech's most recent Academic All-American was former Tech standout Clint Ewing in 2010. Ewing earned Third Team Academic All-America accolades from ESPN The Magazine.
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