2017 CoSIDA ACADEMIC ALL-AMERICAN TEAM

MALIBU, Calif. - Aaron Barnett of the Pepperdine baseball team became the program's third ever Academic All-American this week, earning the honor from CoSIDA after a stellar senior season both on the field and in the classroom.

Barnett joins now head coach Rick Hirtensteiner and Pete Nicholson as the only Pepperdine baseball players to garner the honor after being named to the second team this season. Hirtensteiner was a first-team Academic All-American in 1989 and Nicholson was named to the third team in 1972. Across all sports, Barnett is just the 11th Pepperdine student-athlete to earn Academic All-American recognition and the 12th selection overall (with men's volleyball player Clint Olson earning the honor twice).

Barnett, who has garnered CoSIDA Academic All-District honors each of the last three seasons, graduated this year with a 3.83 GPA as an economics major. He led the Waves in batting average, hitting .298 this season, while posting team highs with 57 total hits and 14 doubles. He had 25 RBI and 22 runs scored and posted a .352 on-base percentage. Barnett also was the fourth toughest player to strike out in the country this year, going down on strikes just once every 19.1 at-bats. He started all 48 games he has played in for Pepperdine this season.

Along with Academic All-District honors, Barnett was also named to the WCC All-Academic Team and earned a spot on the All-Conference first team this year. He is the only player from the WCC to be named an Academic All-American this season.

Barnett finishes his career with an impressive list of accolades that include; Academic All-American, three-time Academic All-District, All-WCC first team, two-time All-WCC honorable mention, three-time WCC All-Academic, Freshman All-American, two-time NCAA All-Regional Team and WCC All-Freshman Team. For his career he owns a .314 batting average, 101 RBI and 93 runs scored. His 269 career hits are good for the fifth most all-time in program history.