SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – Mitchell Lyall of the University of Sioux Falls Baseball Team has become the program's second-ever student-athlete named to the Google Cloud Academic All-District Team as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).

 

Lyall, who had a 3.94 grade point average in chemistry, joins Connor Merriam, a former catcher for USF Baseball, who was named in 2017. Lyall is one of 11 players named to the team from District Seven, which includes the Northern Sun Intercollegiate, Great America and Mid-America Conferences. Additionally, he is one of five players named from the NSIC (Jayden Fleck, infielder, SMSU; Teddy Petersen, infielder, Minnesota State; Tom Imholte, catcher, Minnesota State and Mathew Meyer, infielder, St. Cloud State).

The 2019 Google Cloud Academic All-District® Baseball Team, selected by CoSIDA, recognizes the nation's top student-athletes for their combined performances on the field and in the classroom. The Google Cloud Academic All America® program separately recognizes baseball honorees in four divisions —NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III and NAIA.

First-team Academic All-District® honorees, including Lyall, advance to the Google Cloud Academic All-America® ballot. First-, second-and third-team (when selected) Academic All-America® honorees will be announced in June.  

A native of Brandon, Manitoba, Canada, Lyall was called on throughout the season by USF Head Coach Grant Hieb to take care of late inning situations for the Cougars. . This season, Lyall owned a 0.00 ERA for a good share of the spring before finishing with a 2.04 earned run average and a 3-1 record. In 16 appearances, he had two saves. He allowed just four earned runs and nine hits in 17 2/3 innings as opponents batted just .143 against him. He concluded the 2019 season with 14 strikeouts and four walks for USF.

Lyall, the son of Carmen and Brad Lyall, was named Academic All-NSIC for a third time on May 16. On Sunday, May 19, Lyall graduated Summa Cum Laude (3.9-4.0 grade point average) from USF. Earlier this spring, he was honored as the "Outstanding Chemistry Senior" by USF's Natural Sciences Department. He was also one of 15 students honored with "Celebrating Academic Achievement in the Natural Sciences" honors.