AUSTIN, Texas | Seniors Josh Finerty and Chris Gambert have been named as 1st Team Academic All-Americans by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), the organization announced this week.
 
Despite the cancellation of spring competition during COVID-19, CoSIDA continued its sponsorship of the Academic All-America awards program. Student-athletes were selected based on career statistics.
 
The Division II Academic All-America® program is being financially supported by the NCAA Division II national governance structure to assist CoSIDA with handling the awards fulfillment aspects for the 2019-20 Division II Academic All-America® teams program.
 
Finerty, a third baseman, was named as an Academic All-America in one of the four infield positions.   A career .302 hitter, the senior from Louisville was off to a hot start in 2020, batting .365 with a pair of homers and 10 RBIs in the first 14 games.  In fact, in the last week of the season, Finerty was named GLVC Player of the Week after going 9-for-17 and posting a 1.176 slugging percentage in a doubleheader sweep of Lee and a 3-game sweep of Quincy. The biology major, who has already been accepted to medical school, boasts a 3.9 cumulative grade point average.

Gambert earns his second straight Academic All-America honor as a catcher after being named to the third team last year. An exercise science major who entered Bellarmine's Doctor of Physical Therapy program in late May, Gambert is lifetime .338 hitter at Bellarmine.  He is coming off an incredible performance last season that saw him lead the GLVC in slugging percentage at .745 while hitting .391, banging out 16 home runs and driving in 51 runs. In addition to the Academic All-America honors, he also earned 2nd Team All-America honors in 2019 from both the American Baseball Coaches Association and Conference Commissioners Association.  A Louisville native, Gambert has earned a cumulative grade point average of 3.70.
 
Twenty-one of the 34 members of the 2020 CoSIDA Academic All-America® Division II Baseball teams have at least a 3.70 GPA, with three student-athletes maintaining a perfect 4.00 GPA. The 11 members of the first team have an average GPA of 3.79.
 
In addition to Gambert, the Academic All-America® Division II Baseball teams have four repeat performers – Jacob Buchberger (Davenport University), Nathan Mark (Rockhurst University), Walter Pennington (Colorado School of Mines), and Aaron Anderson (Flagler University, who also was named the DII Academic All-America Team Member of the Year.

FULL RELEASE FROM COSIDA