2018 Google Cloud Academic All-District Baseball Team
BOSTON – Brady Chant of the Suffolk baseball team has added academic accolades to his extensive athletic resume as the senior was named to the Google Cloud College Sports Information Directors Association (CoSIDA) Academic All-District Team for the 2018 season, the organization announced Thursday.
Chant is one of 11 NCAA Division III players in the New England region honored for combined excellence academically and athletically with first-team District 1 honors. The Business Open major is one of two players from the GNAC to earn the honor and second Ram in as many seasons to earn the accolade, following in his former co-captains footsteps Matthew Brenner. Chant is one of two Suffolk spring sport athletes to earn the feat as softball's Taylor Holmes picked up the accolade as well. Overall, Chant is the fourth Suffolk baseball player to pick up the accolade and eighth Ram across all sports to earn the recognition. In total, Suffolk has produced 11 all-district honorees with only one, men's basketball's Ben Small (2006-07), going on to achieve academic all-America recognition.
First-team Academic All-District honorees advance to the CoSIDA Academic All-America Team ballot, where first-, second- and third-team All-American honorees will be selected later this month.
The centerfielder from Warwick, Rhode Island, has been instrumental in Suffolk's line-up since putting on the blue-and-gold jersey four years ago leading the Rams to four consecutive GNAC Championships and four straight NCAA DIII Regional Tournament appearances. Along the way, the four-time all-conference honoree earned spots on the league's first team three times, became the first-ever Ram to garner four GNAC Gold Glove honors and took home all-tournament accolades in each of Suffolk's post-season runs with Most Valuable Player status in 2016 and capped it all off with GNAC Player of the Year recognition this season.
Chant has also made his name known regionally with a pair of D3Baseball.com and NEIBA All-Region accolades, while also receiving national recognition. As a junior a year ago he took home a D3Baseball.com All-American Honorable Mention nod before being tabbed preseason second-team All-American from the national organization prior to first-pitch of the 2018 slate.
The team's co-captain continued to push the envelope this season as the senior leads the way in nearly every offensive category, batting .357 for 56 hits, 34 RBI, 34 runs scored and 22 stolen bases. Chant also rewrote the Rams' record books as he became the fifth-ever Suffolk baseball to knock 200 career hits, accomplish the feat with a lead-off base-hit in a 10-1 victory over Lasell April 8, 2018. Today, he sits second all-time on the Rams' hit lists with 229, nine shy of tying the all-time record held by Jake Cintolo set in 2014. His offensive output has correlated into defensive performances with the 6-foot-3 centerfield holding a perfect fielding percentage in 118 total chances with 115 putouts.