UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Two members of the Penn State baseball team were named CoSIDA Academic All-District, announced on Thursday. Graduate student outfielder/first baseman Cole Bartels and junior catcher Matt Wood were voted First Team Academic All-District for District 2.
District 2 is made up of schools from Washington, D.C., Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Bartels and Wood now move on to Academic All-American voting.
Bartels and Wood are the 13th and 14th baseball student-athletes to be selected Academic All-District since 2000. Jack Anderson was Penn State's most recent selection in 2016.
Graduating with his bachelor's degree in advertising/public relations in May 2021, Bartels is currently pursuing a master's degree in business analytics. Bartels is carrying a 3.92 graduate GPA after earning a 3.51 undergrad GPA.
On the field this season, Bartels has been a key member of the Penn State lineup, starting all 45 games and serving as leadoff hitter for most of the season. He is batting .269 with 46 hits, 33 runs and 19 RBI this season. Bartels has seven doubles and two homers. He had a 16-game hit streak to start the season.
Bartels has 11 multi-hit games this season to go with nine multi-run games and four multi-RBI games. Against Maryland (4/1-3), Bartels tallied three hits, including a double, and scored two runs in game two and launched a solo homer in game three. He also had two hits, including a homer, two runs and two RBI vs. West Virginia (4/12) and three hits, including two doubles, and four RBI against Mount St. Mary's (4/20).
A supply chain management/information systems major, Wood is carrying a 3.80 GPA.
On the field, Wood has recorded one of the best seasons in program history.
He currently leads the Big Ten in batting average (.414), ranking seventh in the country and second among Division I catchers. He also paces the conference in on-base percentage (.505), sitting 13th in the nation. He leads the Big Ten batting average race by 22 points.
Wood sits second in the Big Ten in hits per game (1.48), slugging percentage (.682) and OPS (1.187), fourth in triples (3) and sixth in hits (65).
The junior leads the Nittany Lions in batting average, hits, runs (42), homers (8), RBI (44), slugging percentage and on-base percentage. He's tied for the team lead in triples and stolen bases (5).
Among Division I catchers, Wood sits second in batting average and on-base percentage, fourth in OPS, sixth in triples and ninth in slugging percentage.
In Big Ten play, Wood is hitting .478 with 32 hits in 18 games. He has six doubles, two triples, four homers and 23 RBI to go with a 1.318 OPS.
Wood paces PSU with 22 multi-hit and 10 multi-RBI games this season.
He recently snapped a 26-game hit streak, but maintains a 27-game on-base streak. The 26-game streak was the second-longest in program history behind only Michael Campo (41, 2000). The streak featured 15 multi-hit performances. He batted .469 (45-of-96) with eight doubles, two triples, and four homers. He also drew 16 walks, three hit-by-pitches and had five sacrifice flies.
The Nittany Lions, led by head coach Rob Cooper, are 23-22 overall and 9-8 in Big Ten play heading into a three-game series at Ohio State this weekend. The series begins on Friday at 6 p.m. Penn State has won 10 of its last 13 games.
Matt Wood