GREENBORO, N.C. - For a third consecutive year, the Widener University baseball team was honored for its work in the classroom with the ABCA Team Academic Excellence Award. 

Widener posted a 3.36 combined GPA for the 2019-2020 academic year. The Pride is one of only five schools in the Middle Atlantic Conferences to earn the recognition. 

Teams from every level of college and high school baseball were honored with this year's award, which highlights programs coached by ABCA members that posted a GPA of 3.0 or above on a 4.0 scale for the entire 2019-20 academic year.

A record 440 college and high school programs submitted nominations and received this year's award. In total, 146 high school teams along with 294 programs from the NCAA Div. I, II, III, NAIA, and Junior College levels were recognized.

The American Baseball Coaches Association has a long tradition of recognizing the achievements of baseball coaches and student-athletes. The ABCA/Rawlings All-America Teams are the nation's oldest, founded in 1949, and the ABCA's awards program also includes the ABCA/Rawlings All-Region Awards, the ABCA/Diamond Regional & National Coaches of the Year and several other major awards such as the ABCA Hall of Fame and the Dave Keilitz Ethics in Coaching Award.