D3BASEBALL.COM PRESEASON ALL-AMERICA TEAM
BOSTON – Suffolk baseball senior centerfielder Brady Chant has been named a 2018 D3Baseball.com Preseason Second Team All-American, the online publication announced.
The 2018 D3Baseball.com Preseason All-Americans feature a remarkable mix of talented players across the nation and are chosen from previous year's All-American and All-Region nominations. Chant is the lone representative of the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) and one of six student-athletes from New England honored.
A native of Warwick, Rhode Island, Chant is just the second-ever Ram to earn the recognition since the inception of the award in 2008 and first since Jake Cintolo brought home the distinction prior to the 2014 campaign.
Chant enters his final campaign in blue-and-gold with the chance to have his name sit atop the 71-year program record book in multiple categories including hits as his 173 career total is 65 shy of the all-time program mark of 238 set by Cintolo in 2014. He also looks to emerge on all-time runs (116), RBI (83), total bases (265), stolen bases (46) and doubles (30) list.
Chant registered a .361 batting averaging during his third season with the Rams in 2017, while putting together Suffolk records for triples in a season (12) and a career (22). The NCAA DIII Individual Statistical Champion leader in triples and triples per game (.27) anchored Suffolk to the same honor in both categories as a team for the first time in the program's history. The 6-foot-3 outfielder also added 13 doubles, four jacks and 17 stolen bases.
During the 2017 campaign, he led the way in New England in total bases with 118, a number that finished in the top three in the country, with the third-most hits in the region (69) in 191 plate appearances.
His offensive numbers included a .434 on-base percentage along with a .618 slugging percentage for a Suffolk squad that advanced to Championship Sunday at the NCAA New England Regionals for the first time in the program's seven trips and hoisted the GNAC trophy for the third consecutive season.
Last season Chant became the second-ever Ram to collect a spot on the D3Baseball.com All-America team after earning his second straight all-region recognition from the organization and three consecutive New England Intercollegiate Baseball Association (NEIBA) all-region selections for New England.
Alongside his NEIBA and D3Baseball.com honors, Chant has also been a three-time all-conference first-team selection by the GNAC and earned a gold glove from the league in each of his first three seasons.
Chant and Suffolk are set to open their 2018 schedule Friday, March 9 against Albion as part of the RussMatt Central Florida Invitational in Auburndale, Florida.