SELINSGROVE, Pa. — Susquehanna University’s senior shortstop and pitcher Andy Berwager (Hanover/South Western H.S.) is on the 2000 GTE Academic All-America College Division District II Baseball Team, as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). Berwager is one of only two players on the 11-player team from the Middle Atlantic Conference — with the other one being his junior brother Shawn Berwager, who is a shortstop and pitcher at Lebanon Valley College.
To be nominated for the GTE Academic All-America Team, a student-athlete must be at least a sophomore with a 3.2 cumulative grade-point average (out of a 4.0 scale), and either a starter or significant reserve on their respective teams. College Division District II includes all NCAA Division II and III schools, as well as NAIA Division II schools from Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
Athletes named to the district team qualify for the national ballot, with that team announced on Tuesday, June 6.
The 6-1, 197-pound Berwager recently earned MAC Commonwealth Conference First Team All-Star honors as a utility player this season, after being a second-team pick at shortstop as both a sophomore and junior. He was the only player on this season’s team to start all 30 games — either playing at shortstop or pitching while being the team’s lead-off hitter. He led the team in home runs with six, tying for the sixth most in a season at Susquehanna while ranking third in the Commonwealth Conference in per-game average (0.20). Berwager batted .336 (40-for-119) and scored 34 runs as he also led the team in at-bats, hits and runs — tying for the sixth most at-bats while recording the eighth most runs in school history. Berwager’s .546 slugging percentage was third highest among the regulars this season, and his on-base percentage was .392. Defensively, he led the team with 89 assists for the second most in a season at Susquehanna, missing the record by just four (Record: 92, Jim Hanlon, 1988), and compiled a solid fielding percentage of .934.
On the mound, he was first on the team in wins (5-4), strikeouts (54) and innings (63) — ranking fourth in the Commonwealth Conference in strikeouts per nine innings (7.71). His 4.57 earned-run average was second best among the regular pitchers and included eight complete games in his nine starts, with just 24 walks in the 63 innings (3.43 per game).
Berwager finished his career second all-time at Susquehanna in career assists with 243 (Record: 257, Gregg Mills, 1990-93), tied for seventh in doubles (23), and tied for ninth in hits (109). He batted .341 while compiling a .427 on-base percentage and .478 slugging percentage in 99 career games. On the mound he was 9-11 with a 3.98 ERA in 25 career appearances.
“Andy was one of our senior leaders and really was a guy who held us together. His ability to play a bunch of different positions helped us throughout the year, and earned him some MVP votes from the conference coaches too,” said second-year Susquehanna head baseball coach Tim Briggs, who led the team to a 13-16-1 record — finishing second in the Commonwealth Conference while making the MAC Tournament for the first time since 1995.
Also a starting quarterback and punter who played some split end this season on the football team, Berwager has earned MAC academic honors four times thus far — twice in the fall and twice in the spring. He is nominated again this spring.
Berwager is a finance major who will graduate with his bachelor’s degree Sunday. He has made the Dean’s List five of his first seven semesters and was inducted into the freshman honor society. He did a financial planning internship at a bank near his home last summer.
He is the son of Timothy and Sheri Berwager of Hanover.
