2022 CoSIDA Academic All-District Baseball Teams
Even though it was cut short, sophomore outfielder Lewis Beals had a historic 2022 campaign for the Hillsdale College baseball team.
Beals' excellence this spring, on and off the diamond, is receiving recognition from others around the Midwest, and leading to awards not won by a Charger baseball player in decades.
On Thursday afternoon, the College Sports Information Directors of America announced that Beals was one of 12 baseball players to receive Academic All-District honors in NCAA DII District 4 for the 2022 season.
The 2021-22 Academic All-District® Baseball Teams, selected by CoSIDA, recognize the nation's top student-athletes for their combined performances on the court and in the classroom. The CoSIDA Academic All-America® program separately recognizes baseball honorees in four divisions — NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III and NAIA. District 4 roughly corresponds with the NCAA DII Midwest Region and includes teams from the GLVC, GLIAC and G-MAC.
Beals is the first Hillsdale baseball player to be recognized by CoSIDA in over two decades. Not since Tony Castleberry earned both Academic All-District and All-American honors in 2000 has a Charger made the Academic All-District team for baseball.
In order to break through, Beals needed a special season, and had one to remember in 2022. The sophomore hit .378 wih a .776 slugging percentage in 38 games, the second-highest single season slugging percentage in program history. Beals led the Chargers in home runs with 14, tied for the sixth most in a single season all time at Hillsdale, and finished second in RBIs with 44 while chipped in nine doubles, three triples and eight stolen bases.
The sophomore put up all those numbers despite missing the Chargers' final nine games of the season with an injury. The fact that Beals ranks so highly all-time in multiple categories despite missing nearly a quarter of his team's games is a testament to just how good he was when he was on the field.
Beals' biggest moment came in a series against McKendree on March 4 and 5. In a 12-7 win over the Bearcats on March 4, Beals accomplished an extremely rare feat by hitting for the cycle, finishing with a single, a double, a triple and a home run in the same contest. It was part of a weekend where Beals went 11 of 17 at the plate with two doubles, a triple, five home runs and 10 RBIs, and became the first Charger baseball player in at least a decade to receive NCBWA National Player of the Week honors.
As good as he was on the field, Beals has been arguably even more impressive in the classroom. He's one of just two student-athletes on campus to carry a 4.0 GPA in his two years at Hillsdale, and he was named the Outstanding Junior among biology majors at Hillsdale this past spring. That he's able to continue to excel despite missed class time and a full schedule during the spring season is a testament to his work ethic and dedication.
As an All-District honoree, Beals is one of 95 NCAA DII baseball players who are under consideration for CoSIDA Academic All-American honors. Three teams of 12 players will be named Academic All-Americans from that pool of 95 All-District winners, and the selections will be announced on June 8.
Photo by Gwen Buchhop