Maria Bye named Academic All-American of the Year

May 28, 2008

Tommie pitcher-1B Maria Bye (SR-Maple Plain/Orono) was named Softball's College Division Academic All-American of the Year by ESPN the Magazine and the College Sports Information Diretors of America (CoSIDA).

She was selected as the top overall student-athlete among the 33 players chosen on the first, second and third teams from the College Division, which includes more than 700 eligible schools in Division II and III and NAIA.

Bye joined an elite group of collegians in any sport to make first-team CoSIDA Academic All-America all three years she was eligible.

She's the first St. Thomas female and fifth Tommie overall to receive Academic All-America three times. She joins Curt Behrns (football), Jake Barkley (football), Andrew Hilliard (track and field) and Dave Linn (men's swimming) as three-time honorees. Barkley, Linn and Bye are the lone three-time first-team honorees.

Bye also joins a select group of collegians in any sport to make first-team All-America and first-team CoSIDA Academic All-America all three seasons, and play on an NCAA champion team.

Bye also is believed to be just the third MIAC student-athlete to be named Academic All-American of the Year in a sport. She joins St. John's Chris Palmer (football, 1995) and St. Thomas' Andrew Hilliard (track and field, 2003).

In Bye's four-year era, St. Thomas went 175-19, including a 98-2 mark vs. conference foes. She batted .403 over 173 games witrh 37 homers, 175 RBI, 192 hits, 133 runs, 80 walks, 32 doubles and just nine errors in 460 chances. As a pitcher in 127 career appearances she had a 4-to-1 strikeout to walk ratio with 702 strikeouts and 175 walks in 534 innings, and finished 85-10 with an 0.99 ERA. She held opposing batters to a .144 average.

Bye tied the MIAC career record for winning percentage of 44-1 also held by former teammate Janet Nagle. In all-game stats, Bye surpassed Nagle's MIAC record for career strikeouts and wins. Bye became the first player in Division III history to record 85 wins and 700 strikeouts as a pitcher and hit more than 35 home runs as a batter.

In 2008 MIAC games, she led the conference with a .564 batting average, 30 RBI, and eight home runs. On the mound, Bye led the conference with a 0.28 ERA and was 10-0 with 67 strikeouts over her 49.2 innings of work. In all 47 games, Bye finished 21-2 with a 1.29 ERA, and in batting hit .397 with 52 hits, 42 RBI, 36 runs, 12 home runs, 11 doubles, 17 walks and a .756 slugging percentage. Bye had a scoreless streak on the mound of 45 innings in late April and early May (62.3 innings without an earned run).

Bye's total career stats:

Bye, who has a 3.93 gpa in Biochemistry, was named the College Sporting News MIAC Female Student-Athlete of the Year.

In Bye's four-year era, St. Thomas went 175-19, including a 98-2 mark vs. conference foes. She was a four-time all-conference honoree and swept the MIAC regular-season awards (Pitcher and Player of the Year) two years in a row. She started all 145 games over her last three seasons. She finished second in MIAC career home runs with 37. She was named NFCA's Division III National Player of the Week twice on her career (April 2006, March 2007).

In 2005 as a freshman, Bye went 16-3 with a 1.53 ERA and 160 strikeouts in 119 innings and also hit .402 with 39 hits and 35 RBI. In 10 postseason games, she batted .480 with 12 hits, seven RBI, six runs and four walks at the plate, and on the mound was 2-0 with one save and an 0.40 ERA. I\As a sophomore in 2006, she batted .403 with 59 RBI, 12 home runs, 56 hits, 35 runs, six doubles, 19 walks, a .705 slugging percentage and just two errors in 143 defensive chances, and as a pitcher, was 21-2 with an 0.61 ERA with 185 strikeouts and 41 walks in 137 innings. She won 18 consecutive decisions before losing 3-2 in the NCAA championship game (no earned runs allowed in seven innings). Shen also hit safely in 11 of 12 postseason games in 2006. As a junior in 2007 she hit .413 with 45 hits, 34 walks, 49 RBI, 35 runs, nine doubles and 10 HR, and was 6-for-14 with six RBI in six postseason games. On the mound, she was 26-3 with an 0.71 ERA in 158 innings with 237 strikeouts and 48 walks.

Bye was among just four Division III players on the CoSIDA first team. The only other MIAC player honored was Gustavus junior shortstop Rachael Click, also a first-team honoree. Click was a third-team honoree in 2007.

St. Thomas now has had two CoSIDA Academic All-Americans this school year -- senior P.J. Theisen was honored in football. UST also some strong candidates in track and field, which is in the first phase of voting.

UST has now received the coveted Academic All-American honor 56 times, including 36 honorees in the last eight years.

Tommie softball has had nine Academic All-America honors in the 30-year history of the program, includi9ng eight in the last six seasons -- Toni Call (1996), Shannon Moore (2003), Kristi Huegel (2004), Nikki Conway (2006) and Carrie Embree (2006, 2007) and Bye (2006, 2007, 2008).

More than 400 players are nominated for the elite College Division softball award from the 10,000 players in Division II, III and NAIA softball. Sophomores, juniors and seniors with a 3.20 cumulative gpa or higher are eligible for the award, formerly sponsored by GTE and Verizon. Voters are members of the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).

Click here for CoSIDA story:

http://www.cosida.com/news/2008/5/27/0527082733_2279.aspx