Season of Champions Honoring Baseball Draws Huge Turnout
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The Kent State University ballroom was filled to capacity on Thursday night as fans of all ages from the Kent, Ohio community celebrated the Golden Flashes' baseball team and their historic run to the College World Series.
Hosted by the University, the Season of Champions celebration honored the baseball team which finished T-5th in the nation at the College World Seires after earning NCAA Super Regional and NCAA Regional titles along the way.
TEAM ACCOMPLISHMENTS
• School-record 47 wins
• Matched school record with 24 MAC wins
• Reached first NCAA College World Series in program history
• Recorded 21-game winning streak
• Won first NCAA Regional and NCAA Super Regional championships in program history
• Made 12th NCAA Tournament appearance in program history and unprecedented fourth straight
• Won 11th MAC regular season championship in program history and second straight; won title in wire-to-wire fashion
• Won 10th MAC Tournament championship and unprecedented fourth straight; went 4-0 at the tournament and clinched title with a 3-1 victory over Central Michigan in the championship game on May 26
• Posted a 7-4 record against ranked opponents
• Broke team records in game played (67), at-bats (2,445), strikeouts (543), putouts (1,830), assists (786)
• Senior class of outfielder Joe Koch, catcher David Lyon, right-handed pitcher Ryan Mace, shortstop Jimmy Rider and southpaw ace David Starn helped Kent State post 174 victories in four seasons
• Recorded a perfect 1000 multi-year Academic Progress Rate (APR), marking the third consecutive year the Kent State baseball program has been recognized. The APR achievement put the team in elite company as one of only 16 schools in the country to reach the accomplishment. Of the 16 teams to earn the public recognition the past three years, Kent State is the only public institution on the list that includes Brown, Bucknell, Holy Cross, Columbia, Dartmouth, Duke, Georgetown, Harvard, Lafayette, Mount St. Mary's, St. Joseph's, Stanford, Penn, Vanderbilt and Yale. Kent State's academic prowess is backed by a cumulative 3.093 team grade point average.
• Recognized for having the highest team GPA amongst the eight teams in the 2012 NCAA College World Series.
