FMU’s Shuey named to PBC All-Academic Team

Francis Marion University sophomore first baseman Preston Shuey has been named to the 2009 Peach Belt Conference Baseball All-Academic Team.

Shuey, a native of Charlotte, was selected to the 13-player All-Academic first team.
The 6-5 245-pound first baseman has a 3.59 grade-point average as a finance major. He has twice been named to the FMU Swamp Fox Athletic-Academic honor roll and once to the PBC Presidential Honor Roll. He represented Francis Marion at the 2008 NCAA Leadership Conference.
On the field this past season, he batted .317 and ranked 10th in the Peach Belt with 51 runs batted in. He also scored 40 runs while compiling 10 doubles and seven home runs. Among his round-trippers were two walk-off homers. He led the PBC in fielding put outs with 513, ranked second in total fielding chances (537), and fifth in fielding double plays (40). He committed only two errors for a .996 fielding percentage.

He reached base safely in 45 of 53 games played, and was named to the 2009 PBC Tournament All-Tournament Team.

Shuey helped Francis Marion to a 38-15-1 record this past year, the second-highest win total in the program’s history. The Patriots finished second during the PBC regular season, won the Peach Belt Tournament title, and earned their fourth NCAA Division II national tournament bid in the past seven years, placing third at the Southeast Regional in Aiken. The Patriots are currently ranked 14th in the latest Collegiate Baseball Magazine NCAA Division II Top 30 poll.

The South Mecklenburg High School product was named the 2008 PBC Freshman of the Year after batting .344 with seven homers and 55 RBIs.

The All-Academic team is part of a new season-long program recognizing the outstanding accomplishments of PBC student-athletes in the classroom as well as on the field. To be eligible for the squad, a student-athlete must participate in at least half of his team’s games and be either a starter or significant contributor, achieve a 3.20 cumulative grade point average (on a 4.0 scale), and have completed at least one full academic year at his current institution.