College Baseball News – Guilford’s Smith Named to First Team Capital One Academic All-America(R) Unit

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Guilford College senior John Macon Smith (Greensboro, N.C./Western Guilford (Western Carolina)) earned First Team Capital One Academic All-America® NCAA Division III baseball honors Wednesday from the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). Smith is the Quakers’ seventh Academic All-American® in school history and the second to earn first-team laurels. He is Guilford’s first baseball player so honored by the Capital One Academic All-America® program.

John Macon-Smith 2014

John Macon-Smith 2014 by Greensboro Sports

John Macon Smith (Greensboro, N.C./Western Guilford (Western Carolina))

A two-time Capital One Academic All-District® 5 honoree, Smith recently concluded a brilliant career for the Quakers. Last week he became the fifth baseball performance all-American in school history with his selection to the American Baseball Coaches Association’s Third Team NCAA Division III All-America squad. He earned First Team All-Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) baseball recognition in April and was also named the league’s Farm Bureau Insurance Baseball Scholar-Athlete Award according to a vote of the league’s sports information directors.

Smith, a 6-2, 205-pound first baseman, also earned All-South honors from the ABCA and from D3baseball.com last week. The two-time First Team All-ODAC selection led the Quakers with a .459 batting average, a .531 on-base percentage, 44 runs, 68 hits, and 13 stolen bases in 38 games. Smith also smacked eight doubles, four triples and six homers. He finished second the team with 40 runs batted in (RBI) and a .689 slugging percentage. Through games of May 18, Smith ranked seventh among NCAA Division III batting average leaders, ninth in on-base percentage, 28th in slugging percentage, 33rd in runs per game, and 36th in hits. He totaled a team-high 23 multiple-hit contests, 10 multiple-RBI games and accumulated a 14-game hitting streak in 2014. Smith reached base at least once in all 38 games.

In three Guilford seasons, Smith recorded a .417 batting average with 23 home runs and 124 RBI. He set the school’s career record for hits per game (1.63). Smith ranks second in school history in batting average, sixth in runs (125), and sixth in RBI. He was named to five all-region teams, three All-ODAC squads and twice received the league’s Baseball Scholar-Athlete Award in his illustrious career.

In the classroom, Smith graduated earlier this month with high honors and a 3.83 grade point average. The dean’s list accounting major is a six-time member of Guilford’s Student-Athlete Honor Roll and three-time Academic All-ODAC selection. He was recognized for outstanding achievement by an accounting student at Guilford’s 2014 Awards Convocation and has an internship with McGladrey LLP this summer. Smith will pursue a master’s degree at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in the fall.

Smith helped coach Nick Black’s ’02 club to a 19-20 overall record, 9-11 in the ODAC. Black could have as many as 27 returning letter winners next season.

About Capital One
Capital One Financial Corporation (www.capitalone.com) is a financial holding company whose subsidiaries, which include Capital One, N.A., and Capital One Bank (USA), N. A., had $206.9 billion in deposits and $289.9 billion in total assets as of September 30, 2013. Headquartered in McLean, Virginia, Capital One offers a broad spectrum of financial products and services to consumers, small businesses and commercial clients through a variety of channels. Capital One, N.A. has more than 900 branch locations primarily in New York, New Jersey, Texas, Louisiana, Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia. A Fortune 500 company, Capital One trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “COF” and is included in the S&P 100 index.

To be eligible for Academic All-America ® consideration, a student-athlete must be a varsity starter or key reserve, maintain a cumulative G.P.A. of 3.30 on a scale of 4.00, have reached sophomore athletic and academic standings at his/her current institution and be nominated by his/her sports information director.

Since the program’s inception in 1952, CoSIDA has bestowed Academic All-America honors on more than 20,000 student-athletes in Divisions I, II, III and NAIA, covering all NCAA championship sports.

For more information about the Academic All-America ® Teams program, please visit www.cosida.com or www.capitaloneacademicallamerica.com.