June 16, 2009

Frisco, Texas - Texas State's Paul Goldschmidt became the first athlete in Southland Conference history to take back-to-back honors as the Capital One Bank/SLC Baseball Student-Athlete of the Year and the first ever to be awarded dual honors with Player of the Year accolades in the same season, league officials released Tuesday afternoon in conjunction with the release of the All-Academic Baseball Teams.

The Woodlands, Texas native carries a 3.87 grade point average in finance and was recently credited for his academic achievements with a place on the CoSIDA All-Academic District VI team and an ESPN The Magazine All-America nod. Goldschmidt, a six-time academic Dean's List recipient, is also a three-time Oak Farms Dairy Academic Award Winner and earned Cream of the Crop honors (4.0 GPA) in 2006 and 2008. The junior was recently selected for the second-straight year as the Male Texas State Scholar-Athlete of the Year by the Southland Conference.

A two-time first-team all-conference selection, Goldschmidt helped lead Texas State to its most wins in school history with 41 and the team's first outright league title, along with the first NCAA Regional Tournament appearance since 2000. Goldschmidt received the SLC Hitter of the Year award for the second consecutive season after leading the nation with 88 runs batted in and a setting a Texas State single-season record with 18 home runs.

The junior collected All-America honors at first base from Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball and was named to the ABCA South Central All-Region Second-Team. The Arizona Diamondbacks selected Goldschmidt in eighth round of the 2009 Major League Draft.

Joining Goldschmidt on the All-Academic Teams is senior pitcher Zach Tritz who holds a 3.00 GPA in physics. The Spring, Texas native is a Dean's List and Oak Farms Dairy recipient and was also named to the 2008 SLC Spring Commissioner's Honor Roll.

2009 Southland Baseball All-Academic Teams