GREENSBORO, N.C. – The Guilford College baseball team was well represented with Carter Blum (McLeansville, N.C.), Ethan George (Burlington, N.C.), Jackson Marcellus (Chapel Hill, N.C.), Jacob Phillips (Brown Summit, N.C.), and Aaron Williams (Mocksville, N.C.) all being named to the Collegiate Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-District team, as announced by the organization on Tuesday.

In order to qualify for the honor in baseball, student-athletes must be at least an academic and athletic sophomore, maintaining a cumulative GPA of 3.50 or higher in the classroom. Meanwhile on the field, a player must appear in 90 percent of the team's games or start in 66 percent of them, with the lone exception being for pitchers who must make 17 appearances in the circle, or throw 25.0 innings or more. No more than five student-athletes may be nominated per school.

Finishing his steady, standout career in the cardinal and grey Blum produced with a .316/.444/.367 triple-slash over 31 games and 28 starts this season for Guilford. Seemingly always on base and always executing the small things at a high level, Blum ranked third on the team in runs scored, with 35, despite his at-bats total of 98 only being the sixth-most on the roster. Connecting on five doubles among his 31 hits, the senior also was hit by eight pitches, good for the second-most on the team, while drawing 16 walks, tied for fourth-most on the team, with more free passes than strikeouts, with 14. Leading the Quakers with five sacrifice bunts on top of a pair of sacrifice flies, Blum finished with 17 RBIs this season but contributed to several more thanks to his selfless approach at the plate. Defensively, he primarily served as GC's starting second baseman but also saw time at both shortstop and third base, amassing a .959 fielding percentage with 77 assists, third-most on the team, and 62 putouts, sixth-most, while pacing the Quakers by contributing to 16 double plays. Having completed his undergraduate degree early in Sports Management with a 3.70 GPA, Blum played this season as an academic graduate student in the Masters of International Sports Management, posting a 3.95 GPA.

Blum's primary counterpart in the middle infield for Guilford this season, George is the lone underclassman to get recognized this year after playing in 30 games with 29 starts at shortstop. Hitting .298/.346/.479, the sophomore experienced his fair stare of ebbs and flows following a standout freshman campaign, but showed increased power production despite fewer at-bats by connecting on six doubles, a triple, and three home runs, a total that is tied for the second-most on the squad. Scoring 11 times and driving in 19 this spring, he also was tied for second on the team with four sacrifice bunts and added four sacrifice flies, a number that was tied for the most on the team. Featuring an aggressive approach, George nonetheless showed great bat-to-ball skills as he only drew eight walks, but also only struckout ten times. Second on the team in assists, with 78, he had 11 errors at shortstop this season for the Quakers on his way to a .918 fielding percentage, although it is worth noting he showed much better glovework in the season's final third. In the classroom, George is in the GC Business Administration program in which he owns a 3.65 GPA.

One of two 2024 recipients of this honor for Guilford, Marcellus earns his second CSC Academic All-District selection at the end of a record-setting final season for the Quakers. GC played just 38 games this season, during which Marcellus racked up a whopping 21 appearances, the most in the ODAC and sixth-most in Division-III Baseball at the end of the regular season. Along the way, the graduate student became the newest Quaker record holder with 75 games pitched in during his standout career. This season, the right-hander fully committed to a relief role, and had it not been for some difficulties down the stretch, he would feature far better-looking numbers. Over 36.0 innings, Marcellus fanned 29 opposing batters and owned a 6.50 ERA and 1.67 WHIP while hitters batted just .282 against him, the second-lowest mark on the team among pitchers who threw 15 or more innings. More important than any of those numbers, however, is that he routinely put the Quakers in a position to win games, resulting in a team-best 6-1 record and a tie for the team-lead for wins. Finishing his bachelor's degree with a 3.80 GPA as a double-major in Political Science and Religious Studies last year, Marcellus studied in the Guilford Masters of Business Administration program this season and owned a flawless 4.00 GPA.

Blossoming as the Quakers' ace in his senior campaign, Phillips is the second-of-two multi-time recipients of this honor for GC. On the field, Phillips went from mid-week starting option and weekend reliever to a legitimate weekend starter this spring with a superb season. Making 14 appearances with eight starts for Guilford, he led the Quakers' pitching staff in virtually every major statistic including innings, with 58.1, and strikeouts, with 51, while also pacing GC arms with at least 40 innings pitched in ERA, at 4.63, WHIP, at 1.58, opponent batting average, at .299, and extra-base hits allowed, with 16. Another pitcher that routinely positioned Guilford with the chance to win when he took the ball, Phillips was equal to Marcellus for the team-lead in wins, finishing 6-2, and tossed the team's lone complete game this season, a ten-strikeout showing at Eastern Mennonite on April 19^th. Off the diamond, he owns a 3.66 GPA having completed his degree in Exercise and Sport Sciences.

A staple receiving all the pitches Marcellus, Phillips, and a multitude of other arms threw over the past two seasons, Williams receives a well-earned honor at the end of his two-year stint with the Quakers, during which he entrenched himself as a leader both on and off the field. Playing in 32 games with 28 starts behind the dish, Williams was among GC's top hitters, hitting .374/.441/.487, with his batting average standing as the second-best mark on the squad. Ripping 11 doubles and one triple, the two-year graduate transfer from Catawba, scored 33 runs and drove in 20 while walking more often than he struckout, 14 times to ten. Finishing fifth on the team with a .928 OPS, Williams' work with the pitching staff proved far more important with his 183 putouts leading the team, as were his eight runners caught stealing while the team ERA of 6.37 this season being the best mark the program has featured post-COVID. Finishing his degree in Sports Management early at Catawba, with a 3.79 GPA, Williams spent the last two years at Guilford completing his MBA with a Sports Management focus, posting a 4.00 GPA.

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