May 22, 2013
STANFORD, Calif. - Senior All-American pitcher Mark Appel was named the Pac-12 Conference Baseball Scholar-Athlete of the Year, as announced Wednesday. The award, which is presented in each of the 22 sports sponsored by the league, was established to honor collegiate student-athletes who are standouts both academically and in their athletic discipline.
Appel, who hails from Houston, Texas, and has been the club's Friday night starter for the last three seasons, also has been named a semifinalist for the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association's Dick Howser Trophy and found a spot on the midseason watch list for the Diamond Sports Pitcher of the Year Award presented by the College Baseball Hall of Fame.
Appel was named the NCBWA Pitcher of the Year and garnered numerous All-America accolades from the NCBWA, Collegiate Baseball and Baseball America in 2012. The preseason All-American has gone 8-4 in 12 starts for the Cardinal this season and boasts a 1.97 ERA and a .201 opposing batting average. Appel leads the Pac-12 and ranks fourth in the NCAA with 110 strikeouts and is a top contender for a number of postseason awards, including the Golden Spikes Award. Appel is one of 10 finalists for the Senior CLASS Award, given annually to the player who best exemplifies excellence in four core areas: community, classroom, character and competition.
After being selected with the eighth overall pick in the 2012 MLB Draft, Appel opted to return for his senior season at Stanford. In March, Appel earned his degree in management, science and engineering.
He was a Pac-12 All-Academic honorable mention performer as a junior in 2012 and as a sophomore in 2011.
In order to be eligible for the Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year award, student-athletes must be a senior (in athletics eligibility) on track to receive a degree, have a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or higher, participate in at least 50 percent of the scheduled contests in the sport and have a minimum of one year in residence at the institution.
Each Pac-12 institution may nominate one individual per sport, and the winners are selected by a committee of Pac-12 staff members at the conclusion of each sport's regular season. The athletic accomplishments of the nominees are a considered in the voting for the award.
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