NEWBERRY — Senior catcher Jeff Sneed and junior designated hitter Ben Herring have been named Second Team Academic All-Americans by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), making Newberry one of just six schools nationwide with multiple players selected.
The duo’s selection marks the third time a pair of Newberry teammates has been named Academic All-Americans in the same year. Women’s golfers Julia Daneshfar (First Team) and Lisa Brandl (Third Team) accomplished the feat in 2013, with wrestlers Jared Holliday (Second Team) and Seiji Borja (Third Team) earning the same distinction two years later.
Herring becomes the third baseball student-athlete in Newberry history to be named an Academic All-American. Chas Goodwin earned the baseball team’s first selection when he garnered Second Team honors in 2014.
A Third Team Academic All-American last season, Sneed becomes the third Newberry student-athlete to be named an Academic All-American twice in his career (Holliday and Borja) and follows Holliday as the second to be recognized by CoSIDA in consecutive years.
Sneed is a Cumming, Ga., native with a 3.94 GPA in Business Administration and Graphic Design. The senior started 48 games at catcher for the Wolves, recording a .331 batting average and collecting 37 RBIs. He recorded 13 multi-hit games and caught 14 runners stealing for a .517 stolen base percentage against him. He caught 45 runners stealing in three years with Newberry, tops in program history since the turn of the century.
Sneed was named the South Atlantic Conference’s Gold Glove recipient at catcher, an honor bestowed to the top defensive player at each position by the league’s head coaches. He was also named to the all-tournament team from the 2017 Pilot/Flying J SAC Baseball Championship. He was the SAC Scholar-Athlete for baseball last season.
Herring, a Social Sciences major from Hopkins, has a 3.88 GPA. The junior designated hitter led the team with a .362 batting average and collected 40 RBIs. Herring appeared in 43 contests for the Wolves and notched 10 multi-hit games. He led Newberry with three home runs on the season. Herring was voted President of the Student Government Association after spending last academic year as the organization’s Treasurer.
The Wolves accumulated half of the South Atlantic Conference’s four Academic All-America selections, with Carson-Newman infielder Paul Kirby and Lincoln Memorial outfielder Logan Augustine voted to the First Team.