The Record Newspapers - Hometown News For Orange County, Texas

After placing three on the Southland Conference’s All-Academic team in 2012, the Lamar baseball team bettered the feat this year as Eric Harrington, Darian Johnson and Jude Vidrine earned first team honors and Chase Angelle took home second team.

Texas A&M-Corpus Christi was the only other school to garner four selections.

Harrington, who had previously graduated with a kinesiology degree, carried a 3.24 cumulative grade point average as he began working on a master’s degree in educational leadership. In addition to his exploits in the classroom, the senior out of Groves was excellent on the mound this season, going 7-1 with a 2.38 earned run average and four complete games.

Johnson finished his final season in the Red and White in equally impressive fashion, leading the team in six offensive categories including batting average (.371) and runs batted in (47) while starting all 59 games in left field. The Chandler, Ariz., native majored in general studies and carried a 3.56 GPA.

Both Harrington and Johnson were automatic selections to the squad by nature of taking home first team All-SLC honors.

Vidrine, an All-Academic second teamer in 2012, led all Cards with 53 scores this season to go along with .294 average and 44 walks for an on-base mark of .432. The junior out of Nederland put up a GPA of 3.45 in mechanical engineering.

Angelle boasted of the best GPA on either squad with a 3.89 in accounting. The reliever out of Orange was an important cog in the Cardinal bullpen, putting up an ERA of 3.25 with a 4-2 record over 36 innings of work.

In all, 24 athletes made up the conference’s All-Academic teams, and All-American Forrestt Allday of Central Arkansas was named the Student-Athlete of the Year.