Baseball recognized with ABCA's Team Academic Excellence Award

7/24/2025 3:05:00 PM

GREENSBORO, N.C.--The Westminster College baseball program claimed the 2024-25 American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) Team Academic Excellence Award Wednesday morning.

The ABCA recognized nearly 750 member college and high school programs from across the country with its Team Academic Excellence Award, presented by Sports Attack. Teams from every level of college and high school were honored with this year's award, which highlights programs coached by ABCA members that posted a grade-point average (GPA) of 3.0 or above on a 4.0 scale for during the 2024-25 academic year. Four-hundred forty college programs and nearly 300 high school programs were recognized with this year's award.

Westminster was one of seven Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) programs to claim the Team Academic Excellence Award in 2024-25. Led by seventh-year head coach Patrick Riley, Westminster has earned the ABCA's Team Excellence Award for four-straight years (2022-25). The Titans produced a team cumulative GPA of 3.41 this year.

Westminster went 19-22 overall and 11-9 in the PAC this spring, qualifying for the league's championship tournament for the fourth year in a row and advancing to the tournament title game. Recent graduate Kolton Banfi (Harrisville, Pa., Franklin) and rising junior Parker Lyons (Rochester, Pa., Rochester) highlighted six all-conference selections, with both earning First Team All-PAC.

A right-handed pitcher, Banfi went 5-1 with a save, four complete games and a 1.79 earned-run average (ERA) in eight starts (13 appearances) this season. His 84.1 innings pitched led the PAC. A two-time PAC Pitcher of the Week in 2025, he fired his first career complete-game shutout in a 2-0 game one victory at W&J on April 4. It was Westminster's first win over W&J at Ross Memorial Park since 2015. Banfi threw 119 pitches in the victory, scattering 10 hits with two walks and five strikeouts. Now a three-time All-PAC selection, Banfi was a Second Team All-PAC pick in 2023 and 2024. This season, he became the program's all-time leader in innings pitched (283.1) and complete games (9), wrapping up his career 17-11 on the mound with a 3.62 ERA.

A third baseman, Lyons made 39 starts (40 appearances) this season, hitting .371 with five doubles, 18 RBIs and 24 runs scored. He was also successful on 16 of his 19 stolen base attempts. He finished the year with 19 multi-hit games, including a four-hit performance in the April 4 game one win at W&J. He drove in a pair of runs with a two-out single in the top half of the ninth. This is his first All-PAC selection.

Twenty-one members of the baseball program qualified for the PAC's Academic Honor Roll this spring, which recognizes members of varsity sports teams who earned a GPA of 3.6 or higher during their semester of competition. Recent graduate Logan Murgenovich (Aliquippa, Pa., Central Valley), along with Lyons and rising junior Quinn Marquis (Hinckley, Ohio, Highland) were named College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-District^® selections on June 3. It was Murgenovich's second-straight year earning Academic All-District^® distinction and first time Lyons and Marquis qualified for Academic All-District^® honors.

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