Aucker named Google Cloud Academic All District

Senior first baseman advances to national ballot
 

MURFREESBORO, Tenn - Middle Tennessee senior standout Aaron Aucker has been named to the Google Cloud Academic All-District Baseball Team as selected by CoSIDA.

First-team Academic All-District honorees advance to the Google Cloud Academic All-America ballot, with first- and second-team Academic All-America honorees to be announced in June.

Aucker was named to the NCAA Division I District 3 team, which represents North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. He was one of 11 players named to the District 3 team. Aucker sports a 3.44 GPA and majors in Biology. He becomes the seventh Blue Raider to be named Academic All District.

"This is quite an honor, and I'm excited to be included on this list," Aucker said. "I take great pride in my academics and it has always been important for me to do well in the classroom. It's neat to be recognized for what you do in the classroom, as well as what you do in your chosen sport."

The Knoxville, Tenn., native has been one of Middle Tennessee's top producers this season. Aucker was a preseason All-America and All-Conference USA selection in 2018. The power producer is among C-USA's Top 10 in eight different categories, including all three Triple Crown categories.

Aucker leads C-USA in RBI with 64, is tied for second with 13 home runs and his .345 batting average is 10^th among the league leaders. He is also among league leaders for total bases (2^nd, 125), slugging percentage (3^rd, .635), hit by pitch (4^th, 12), hits (9^th, 68) and on-base percentage (11^th, .420).

"Aaron has had an exceptional year on the field for us and he also has been a quality student-athlete throughout his career," Blue Raider Head Coach Jim McGuire said. "Aaron is a very intelligent person and he takes pride in his classwork. It shows and this is a great honor for him."

Aucker has collected at least one hit in 40 of 51 games and he has produced 20 multi-hit games. Aucker also has proven to be a clutch performer. The first baseman is hitting .388 with runners on base, more than 100 points higher than his average with no one aboard.

The power-laden first baseman is hitting .500 with runners in scoring position, .600 with runners on third and less than two outs, and 27 of his 64 RBI (42 percent) have come with two outs.

Aucker joins Chuck Akers (2002), John Williams (2002), Chuck Akers (2003), Todd Martin (2006), Rawley Bishop (2008), Will Skinner (2011) and Ronnie Jebavy (2015) as Blue Raiders to earn the distinction of Academic All District.

To be eligible for Academic All-America consideration, a student-athlete must be a varsity starter or key reserve, maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.30 on a scale of 4.0, have reached sophomore athletic and academic standings at the current institution and be nominated by their sports information director.  

NCAA DIVISION I – DISTRICT 3 (NC, TN, VA)
FIRST TEAM

Pos.	Name	School	GPA	Yr.	Major
P	Agnos, Jake	East Carolina	4.00	So.	Management Information
P	DeCaster, Ethan	Duke University	3.65/3.53	Gr.	Master of Management
C	Jeffers, Ryan	UNCW	3.64	Jr.	Physics
IF	Aucker, Aaron	Middle Tennessee State	3.44	Sr.	Biology
IF	Chambers, Chase	Tennessee Tech	3.50	Sr.	Mechanical Engineering
IF	Putzig, Trevor	Tennessee Tech	3.75	Sr.	Finance
IF	Valichka, Andrew	N.C. Central University	4.00	Sr.	Behavioral & Social Sciences
OF	Hall, Ryan	Col. of William & Mary	3.83	Sr.	Finance
OF	Kinneman, Brett	NC State University	3.42	Jr.	Business Administration
OF	Moritz, Andrew	UNCG	3.89	Jr.	Accounting
DH	Mascia, Nico	University of Tennessee	3.99	Jr.	Biomolecular Engineering