Anderson Named the CoSIDA Academic All-America® Division I Baseball Team Member of the Year
6/8/2022 12:21:59 PM | Baseball
Liberty outfielder Aaron Anderson has been selected the 2022 CoSIDA Academic All-America® Division I Baseball Team Member of the Year by College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). The award is the top academic student-athlete in NCAA Division I baseball this year.|
Anderson highlights a total of 33 student-athletes who earned inclusion on this year's CoSIDA Academic All-America® Division I Baseball team. In addition, Anderson earns his second consecutive selection to the first team.
Anderson is the first student-athlete in the history of Liberty Athletics to earn the honor. 51 Liberty student-athletes have been selected to a CoSIDA Academic All-America@ team in school history. The senior from Jacksonville, Fla. will now be eligible for the 2021-22 CoSIDA Overall Academic All-America® Team Member of the Year, which is the highest academic honor an NCAA student-athlete can receive in any sport.
Anderson is one of six Liberty student-athletes that have been selected to a CoSIDA Academic All-America® Baseball Team. Former Liberty shortstop Richard DeWitt (1980), shortstop Dave Bream (1984), third baseman Jason Benham (1998), pitcher Trey Lambert (2014) and first baseman Alex Close (2014 & 2015) have also been selected to a CoSIDA Academic All-America® Baseball Team.
In his two years at Liberty, Anderson posted a 4.0 GPA while earning a master’s degree in business administration and was named the 2022 ASUN Baseball Scholar-Athlete of the Year. The outfielder was selected to the ASUN All-Academic each of his two seasons at Liberty.
Before transferring to Liberty for the 2020-21 academic year, Anderson maintained a 4.0 GPA and graduated from Flagler with a bachelor’s degree in accounting and business. He was named the 2020 CoSIDA Division II Baseball Academic All-America® Team Member of the Year and was selected to the 2019 CoSIDA Division II Baseball Academic All-American® team during his time there.
The outfielder started every game for the Flames, helping Liberty receive at large selection to an NCAA Regional each of the past two seasons. He hit .341 with 86 RBI, 86 runs scored and 12 home runs during his two years in Lynchburg.
This past season, Anderson led the Flame, in batting average (.310), hits (75) and multi-hit games (23). He had 17 doubles, a career-high eight home runs, 44 RBI and 45 runs scored.
Starting in right field, he helped Liberty to post a 37-23 record, receiving an at-large selection to the 2022 NCAA Gainesville, Fla. Regional.
In 2021, Anderson was voted to the ASUN All-Conference first team. The outfielder led the conference with a .375 batting average, 84 hits and 127 total bases. He had 42 RBI and scored 43 runs and led the team with 25 multi-hit games in his first season with the Flames.
He also led the ASUN in doubles with 25, finishing the year fourth in the nation in two-base hits. His season total is second on Liberty’s all-time list and hit four home runs.
Besides leading the ASUN in four offensive categories, Anderson also was among the conference leaders in runs scored (tied-5th), RBI (tied-5th), triples (tied-3rd) and walks (4th).
Starting in the left field, Anderson helped the Flames post a 41-16 record and receive the second at-large selection in program history to an NCAA Regional. Liberty won 40 or more games in a season for the seventh time in program history in 2021 and defeated ACC champion Duke twice during the 2021 NCAA Knoxville, Tenn. Regional to reach a regional final for the second time in school history.
