Feb. 24, 2011
NORMAL, Ill. -
Illinois State senior third baseman Ryan Court has been named a candidate for the 2011 Lowe's Senior CLASS Award for his notable achievements in four areas of excellence - community, classroom, character and competition.
"Ryan puts all his efforts into excelling on and off the field," head baseball coach Mark Kingston said. "This nomination shows that his achievements are being noticed nationally. This reflects well on him, his family and Illinois State."
Court was one of 30 NCAA baseball student-athletes selected as candidates for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award. To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be classified as an NCAA Division I senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence - community, classroom, character and competition.
The 2011 candidate class includes 15 student-athletes with cumulative grade point averages of better than a 3.5, including three with perfect 4.0 GPAs. Seven are from teams ranked in the Collegiate Baseball preseason top 35 poll. Court was one of two players from the Missouri Valley Conference named to the list, along with Wichita State pitcher Tim Kelley.
A three-year letterwinner for the Redbirds, Court was one of just two Redbirds to start all 56 games in 2010 and finished with a .295 batting average and a team-best 10 home runs. He ranked second on the team in RBI (49) and hits (67) and amassed 17 multiple-hit games and 12 multiple-RBI games. For his efforts, Court was named to the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference All-Tournament team and he earned All-MVC Second Team recognition.
Court has started the 2011 season on a high note, after he finished the opening series against Belmont atop four team offensive categories, including batting average (.500), on-base percentage (.667), doubles (3) and walks (4).
The Redbird baseball team continues competition this weekend (Feb. 25-27) in Clarksville, Tenn., where Illinois State will play one game against Austin Peay, and two versus Milwaukee.
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