Baseball's Billy Burns Selected Academic All-American
5/24/2011 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
MACON, Ga. – Mercer University junior baseball standout Billy Burns (Marietta, Ga./Walton H.S.) has been selected as a 2011 Capital One Academic All-America third team member, as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). The annual CoSIDA awards recognize a combination of academic achievement and athletic excellence.
Burns is the first MU student-athlete to receive the award since 2006 and just the third person, overall, to be so honored from Mercer. Former Bears' baseball player Mike Armstrong was also a third team selection in 2006, while former men's basketball player Will Emerson was a two-time first team choice in 2005 and 2006 as the only other Academic All-America award winners in school history.
Burns, an outfielder who has twice earned Academic All-District recognition (2010 and 2011), is a business major with a 3.85 grade point average.
Burns has hit the baseball with the same fervor he does the books, sporting a healthy .356 batting average (73-205) as the MU team preps to begin play in the Atlantic Sun Conference championships on Wednesday evening. Burns tops the Mercer team in runs scored (68), on-base average (.473) and steals (29…in 32 attempts). He has amassed 19 extra-base hits (11 doubles, two triples and six home runs), while also driving in 31 runs primarily as the Bears' leadoff man.
Burns has also been sterling with the leather. The fleet-footed centerfielder has a .978 fielding percentage in 136 chances, committing just three errors and registering six assists, while gaining a reputation for making spectacular catches seem routine.
"I'm just so happy for Billy to be recognized with this outstanding honor, because he really is the ideal student-athlete," MU head coach Craig Gibson said. "Billy is exactly the type of kid we look to recruit here at Mercer because, not only does he excel on the field, he takes care of business in the classroom as well."
