Capital One CoSIDA Academic All-District Team

Courtesy of Westfield State and Worcester State Sports Information

Westfield State pitcher Mike Molta and Worcester State pitcher Joe Perlak have been named to the Capital One Division III District I Team as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). 

Molta is a movement science/sports medicine major with a 3.63 cumulative grade point average. He has been one of the Owls' frontline starting pitchers for the past three seasons and was the MASCAC rookie of the year in 2012 when he posted a 1.73 earned run average.

Fourteen Westfield State student-athletes have earned Academic All-District ® honors in the past five years. Other Owls honored were: Julia Warner (volleyball), Troy Cutter, (football), Greg Sheridan (football), Rachel Cardin (cross country/track), Brittanie McGregor (women's soccer), Jess Habif (women's soccer), Amanda Gricus (track and field), Josh Blair (baseball), Rachel Dionne (lacrosse/cross country), Stephanie Bartkus (volleyball), Alicia Gardner (softball) Kerry Arouca (track and field/cross country), and Kate MacLellan (soccer).

Perlak has been a key piece for Worcester State on the pitching staff en route to helping the squad share the MASCAC Regular Season title and for aiding the team's efforts in capturing the 2014 MASCAC Baseball Tournament crown this past Monday.

On the campaign, Perlak has gone 5-0 with 32 strikeouts and seven walks in 39.0 innings with a 4.15 ERA in a club-high 14 appearances. In relief, he has come out of the bullpen nine times and yielded an astounding one earned run and one walk in 12.1 frames to go with 10 strikeouts, a 2-0 record and one save.

Perlak carries a 3.61 grade point average with a major in business administration. He is three-time MASCAC All-Academic honoree and on the dean’s list for occasion. Perlak is also a recent inductee into Chi Alpha Sigma, the honor society for Student-Athletes and Sigma Beta Delta, the honor society for International Business.

The All-District recognition marks the first time since former Worcester State Hall of Famer Eric Swedberg was distinguished in 2002, when he was slotted as a district winner before becoming a Second-team Academic All-American. There were seven pitchers chosen on the 18 member first-team which represented institutions from Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.

To be eligible for all-academic honors, a student-athlete must be a starter or key reserve, maintain a cumulative grade point average of 3.30 on a 4.00 scale, have reached sophomore athletic and academic standings at his/her institution and be nominated by his/her sports information director.

This year marks the third that the College Division (Non-Division I) has expanded to include Divisions I, II, II and NAIA and Canadian schools and two-year institutions. The regions were spread out to included eight distinct geographic locations across the United States.