EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Four members of the University of Evansville baseball team earned Missouri Valley Conference Scholar-Athlete Team status during the course of the 2024 season, as graduate students Donovan Schultz (Kimberly, Wis./Kimberly) and Mark Shallenberger (St. Louis, Mo./St. Louis Priory) earned first-team honors, while graduate catcher Brendan Hord (Lexington, Ky./Univ. of Kentucky) and junior infielder Cal McGinnis (Kimberly, Wis./Bradley Univ.) both earned second-team honors.
Schultz earned first-team MVC Scholar-Athlete Team honors for the second-straight year after graduating in December from UE with a degree in Sports Communication with a 3.96 GPA, while pursuing his Master’s in Leadership in the spring semester. Schultz also earned the MVC’s Elite 17 Award for the second-straight season for having the highest cumulative grade point average in the MVC Tournament final, and finished the 2024 season with a 6-2 record and 74 strikeouts in 90.2 innings of work.
Shallenberger also earned first-team MVC Scholar-Athlete Team honors after a year in which he earned multiple All-America honors and was a first-team all-MVC selection. Shallenberger finished the year ranked in the NCAA’s top 100 in 11 different offensive categories, while hitting a team-best .374 with 21 doubles, two triples, 17 home runs and 64 RBI. He set a new UE single-season record with 72 runs scored, and posted the second-highest single-season hit total at UE with 91 hits. He graduated with a degree in Psychology with a 3.55 GPA and was pursuing his Master’s in Leadership this year.
Hord captured second-team MVC Scholar-Athlete Team honors for UE. Hord graduated from UE with a degree in Civil Engineering with a GPA of 3.63, and pursued his Master’s Degree in Leadership this school year. On the field, Hord was a driving force behind UE’s MVC Tournament championship run, as he hit three home runs in four MVC Tournament games on his way to being named to the MVC All-Tournament Team. Overall, Hord hit .242 with 19 doubles, nine home runs and 44 RBI.
McGinnis earned second-team MVC Scholar-Athlete Team honors while being a junior Sports Communication major at UE with a 3.68 GPA. McGinnis played a vital role in UE’s post-season run, as he earned MVC Tournament Most Outstanding Player honors after going 10-for-14 in UE’s four MVC Tournament games. McGinnis also hit a pair of home runs in UE’s three games at the Knoxville Super Regional Tournament against eventual national champion Tennessee. Overall, McGinnis hit .348 with a 14 doubles, two triples, six home runs and 39 RBI in 52 games played.
The criteria for the MVC Scholar-Athlete Team nominations parallels the College Sports Communicators (CSC) standards for Academic All-America selections. Nominees must be starters or important reserves, with at least a 3.50 cumulative grade point average as both an undergraduate and graduate student unless they are in their first semester as a graduate student and don’t have an established GPA. Student-athletes must have reached sophomore athletic and academic standing at their institution.
The Valley’s scholar-athlete team is voted on by the league’s baseball sports information directors after the championship.
Evansville went 39-26 this season, advancing on to the 2024 NCAA Tournament by winning the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament title. The Purple Aces won the Greenville (N.C.) Regional Tournament and forced #1 national seed Tennessee to the “if necessary” game three of the Knoxville Super Regional in UE’s first-ever NCAA Super Regional Tournament appearance.