INDIANAPOLIS – For the second straight season Carson-Newman placed a baseball player on the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-District 3 team as senior Paul Kirby earned the plaudit Thursday afternoon.
Kirby joins 2016 selection Brandon Roberts and Brandon Burchfield to be named CoSIDA Academic All-District as Burchfield was an All-American in 2006 and 2007.
The Goodlettsville, Tenn. native was named the South Atlantic Conference's inaugural winner of the Elite 18 award given to a student-athlete for outstanding work not only in the field of competition, but also in the classroom around the community. Kirby, a 4.0 student, is a pre-med major studying biology and health professions. Since arriving on Carson-Newman's campus in the fall of 2015, the first baseman has been an Eagle Scholar every semester thus far into her C-N career. A student-athlete who meets or surpasses a GPA of 3.25 is recognized by the University as an Eagle Scholar and is given a patch to wear on their uniform during competition.
The senior won the SAC and Tennessee Sportswriters' Association's Player of the Week laurels on April 18 going 6-for-15, a .400 batting average, at the plate with three home runs, 12 RBIs while scoring six times in four games. He hit .339 with nine home runs and 53 RBIs. On the season, Kirby was sixth in the league in runs knocked in with 52, seventh in slugging percentage at .629, eighth in total bases with 112 and ninth in doubles with 16.
From Feb. 8 to March 17, the first baseman hit safely in a career-long 16 straight games where he hit .410 with three bombs, 15 RBIs, 20 runs scored with seven doubles and a triple. It marks the longest hitting streak by any Eagle player in 2017.
During his two seasons in the Orange and Blue, Kirby posted a .310 batting average with 15 long balls, 90 RBIs and 113 knocks. The transfer committed just five errors in 2016-17 registering a .994 fielding percentage.
The teams recognize the nation's top student-athletes for their combined performances athletically and in the classroom. The Academic All-District teams are broken up into eight geographic districts across the United States and Canada separating Division I, Division II and Division III schools.
District 3 is comprised of teams from Conference Carolinas, the Peach Belt Conference and SAC. The Peach Belt led the way with five selections while the SAC placed four student-athletes on the squad and Conference Carolinas had two.
Carson-Newman has had 21 Academic All-Americans dating back to 1992 with Kirby being eligible to become the second baseball player for the CoSIDA Academic All-America Team ballot, where first-, second- and third-team All-America honorees to be selected later this month.
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