Merrill native Adam Cordova may have recently closed out his college baseball career at UW-LaCrosse, but the honors just keep rolling in.
Cordova earned Honorable Mention from the WIAC squad, combined his solid baseball skills with superior classroom work to become one of just 11 selections to the Capitol One Academic All-American DIII First Team.
He also earned District 6 First Team honors the past two years for his 3.84 undergraduate GPA and 3.72 overall average. Cordova was an exercise and sport science major now in the graduate program for physical therapy.
Adam is just the third Eagle to receive the honor, following Kurt Chapman (1996) and Vinnie Rottino (2001, 2002).
“Adam is one of the best overall student-athletes this program has ever seen,” UW-LC head coach Chris Schwarz said. “His work ethic in the classroom and on the field have set him apart as a one of a kind person. We have been fortunate to have Adam in our program, and he will be missed.”
“Becoming an Academic All American, in my opinion, is the greatest honor a college student-athlete can receive. It shows excellence in the classroom and on the field at the highest level, which is something an extremely small amount of people can achieve. We are proud to say Adam wore an Eagles’ uniform and will be an Eagle for life.
“On top of all that Adam has accomplished and all the awards he has been given, he is truly a great person and was a great teammate and captain. He has an extremely bright future.”
Cordova is more into team honors than individual accolades, but accepted the academic award due to the hardship of keeping up his grades while in graduate school.
“It’s a memory that will stick with me of the type of season we had,” he said. “I literally spent every minute outside of baseball, sleep and eating in class or studying. It was a long and stressful semester. Compared to playing baseball while I was an undergraduate, this was like climbing Mount Everest. Trying to mix the volume of information and intensity of the classes in with practice, extra cuts (batting practice) and lifting (weights) was a challenge.”
The team finished with a 21-21 record, and reached the WIAC conference tourney finals before losing 6-5 to UW-Stevens Point, ranked 19th in the nation at the time. UW-LC held a 10-13 mark in the WIAC.
Cordova led the team with 17 doubles, 4th in team single-season annals, and drove in 44 runs, 6th-best in school history, while mostly playing a DH role other than a two-week right field substitution.
He played in 155 career games, starting 146, and posted a career .309 batting average. His place in school hitting records includes 2nd in doubles (49), 4th in at-bats (550), 5th in RBI (118), 7th in hits (170), 8th in runs (112) and tied for 11th in home runs (14).
He’s dealt with injury “since my sophomore year,” and that same concern has put Cordova in the realistic realization that “it’s time to hang up the competitive league. I’ll play some summer adult league.”
Dreams of the bigs are out, “especially with my shoulder issues, not being able to throw takes away any chance of that happening,” he concluded.