UVA left-handed pitcher Brandon Waddell (Jr., Houston, Texas) and infielder/outfielder Thomas Woodruff (Sr., Clifton, Va.), each were named to the 2015 All-ACC Academic Baseball Team, announced Monday by ACC Commissioner John Swofford.
Waddell earned the distinction for the second straight year. He was 5-5 with a 3.93 ERA in 110 innings in 2015 and saved his best baseball for the NCAA tournament, where he was 2-0 with a 2.62 ERA in five starts – all UVa wins. Waddell was named to the All-College World Series Team for the second straight year after going 2-0 in three starts as he led UVa to a pair of wins over Florida before firing seven innings in the victory over Vanderbilt which clinched the Cavaliers’ first NCAA Championship. He graduated in May with a bachelor’s degree in economics and was selected in the fifth round of the 2015 Major League Baseball Draft by the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Woodruff was selected to the team for the first time. Prior to the start of the College World Series, he earned the NCAA’s Elite 89 Award for Baseball, which is presented to the student-athlete with the highest GPA among the teams at the CWS. He played in 39 games in 2015, making 13 starts, with none bigger than his start in Game 2 of the CWS, where he went 3-for-4 with a two-run single to give UVa a 3-0 lead over Vanderbilt. Woodruff graduated in May with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering.
To be eligible for consideration for the All-ACC Academic team, a student-athlete, regardless of classification, must have earned a 3.0 grade point average for the previous semester and maintained a 3.0 cumulative average during his academic career.
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Chris Graham
