2009 Daktronics-NAIA Baseball Scholar Athletes (PDF)

Jeff Hall (above) and Nick Kouratou (below) were named 2009 Daktronics-NAIA Baseball Scholar Athletes.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Park University landed a pair of Tucson, Ariz., natives on the 2009 Daktronics-NAIA Baseball Scholar Athlete team, as right-handed relief pitcher Jeff Hall and senior shortstop Nick Kouratou earned the NAIA’s highest academic honor, announced Wednesday by NAIA officials in Kansas City.

In all, 238 baseball student-athletes from around the country earned Daktronics-NAIA Scholar Athlete distinctions in 2009.

Hall, a junior from Pima Community College who graduated earlier this month with a degree in communications, made 12 appearances and spanned 10.0 innings for the Pirates, striking out 10 with a 3.60 ERA.

Hall was one of three players to pick up a save on the season for Park, making all 12 of his pitching outings out of the bullpen to rank third on the team in pitching appearances. The honor was Hall’s first NAIA scholar-athlete designation.

Kouratou, who like Hall came to Park from Pima, also earned his first national academic honor after starting in 45 of Park’s 46 games at shortstop.

Kouratou batted .376 on the year with a team-best 20 doubles, helping his team-leading extra-base hits total to 25 by adding a triple and four home runs. Kouratou was the only Park player to hit for the cycle in 2009, and he was also third on the team in RBIs, driving in 46.

Defensively, Kouratou posted a .947 percentage in the field, earning Rawlings-MCAC Gold Glove honors at shortstop, an honor that was announced earlier this month at the MCAC tournament in Omaha.

Kouratou also graduated in Park’s most-recent commencement ceremony, earning a degree in psychology.

The NAIA’s baseball scholar athlete list marked the final list of academic honorees for 2008-09, leaving Park University with 23 national scholar-athletes, which surpassed last year’s total of 16 and 2006-07’s 18 total scholar-athlete honorees.