ST. LOUIS, Mo. – Thirteen league baseball players have been named to the 2018 MVC Scholar-Athlete First team, including two unanimous selections, in DBU's Devlin Granberg and Illinois State's Owen Miller, as well as one student-athlete with a perfect 4.00 GPA, DBU's Granberg. The scholar-athlete teams were voted on by the conference’s baseball sports information contacts and announced by the league office today.  

DBU and Illinois State earned the most first team selections, three, including three repeat honorees in Collin Braithwaite, Miller and Granberg, as well as Redbird teammate John Rave and Patriot teammates Jarod Bayless and Kragen Kechely. Bradley (Andy Shadid and Luke Shadid), Southern Illinois (Michael Baird and Logan Blackfan) and Missouri State (Drew Millas and Ben Whetstone) each have two first team honorees, while Valparaiso's Jon Tieman round out the first team selections.

Four of the 13 first team spots are held by graduating seniors, while three juniors and six sophomore complete the makeup of the first team.

Six league schools are represented on the first team, with an additional nine student-athletes named to the honorable mention team. A total of 42 student-athletes were nominated for scholar-athlete honors.  

The criteria for the Missouri Valley Conference Scholar-Athlete Team voting parallels the CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America) standards for Google Cloud Academic All-America voting. Nominees must be starters or important reserves, with at least a 3.20 cumulative grade point average.  Student-athletes must have reached sophomore athletic and academic standing at their institution and must have completed at least one full academic year at their institution.