Baseball Obtains ABCA Team Academic Excellence Award

Titans secure honor for seventh straight season

7/22/2026 5:05:00 PM

GREENSBORO, N.C. - For the seventh straight season, the Illinois Wesleyan University baseball team earned the American Baseball Coaches Association Team Academic Excellence Award, announced by the organization Wednesday, July 22.

The Titans met the qualifications in the classroom as institutions must have a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.0-or-higher during the 2025-26 academic year and their coach must be an active ABCA member. The Green and White were one of seven teams from the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin to claim the honor.

Founded in 1949, the nation's oldest awards programs has a stranding tradition of recognizing the achievements of baseball coaches and student-athletes. It is the home to major awards such as ABCA/Rawling All-America Teams and ABCA/ATEC Regional & National Coaches of the Year awards.

In the classroom, the Titans were spearheaded by three College Sports Communicators All-District members in senior Cole Shamhart (Oak Park, Ill.-Oak Park River Forest), junior Luca Morelli (Lincolnshire, Ill.-Adlai E. Stevenson) and sophomore AJ Weller (Geneseo, Ill.-Geneseo). Weller sported the highest GPA on the team with a 4.0 in finance. Morelli was right behind him with a 3.86 in finance. Two-time all-district honoree, Shamhart, graduated with a degree in business and a 3.58 GPA.

Illinois Wesleyan wrapped up its second season under head coach Michael Kellar finishing second in the CCIW regular season with an 18-22 mark overall and a 12-8 record in conference.

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