Four Gators Make the 2025 College Sports Communicators Academic All-District® Baseball Team
ALBANY, N.Y. – Russell Sage College had four student-athletes named to the 2025 College Sports Communicators Academic All-District® Baseball Team.
ALBANY, N.Y. – Russell Sage College had four student-athletes named to the 2025 College Sports Communicators Academic All-District® Baseball Team.
Outfielder James Lubanski (Port Washington, NY/Paul D. Schreiber), a graduate student, senior infielder Jeff Stearns (Vergennes, VT/Vergennes Union), and graduate pitcher Joe DeGroot (Clay, NY/Cicero-North Syracuse) repeated as honorees, while senior infielder Zachary Figueras (Apopka, FL/Windermere) represented the Gators, which set program single-season records for wins and Empire 8 Conference victories en route to finishing second in this year's Empire 8 Conference Championship Tournament, for the first time.
The five Academic All-District® honorees advanced to the CSC Academic All-America® ballot. Academic All-America® honorees will be announced July 1.
RSC (27-15/18-6 E8) has gone four-for-four in qualifying for the E8 Playoffs.
The 2025 Academic All-District® Baseball Teams, selected by College Sports Communicators, recognize the nation's top student-athletes for their combined performances on the field and in the classroom. The CSC Academic All-America® program separately recognizes honorees in four divisions — NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III and NAIA.
Gator Bites with Papa John's: RSC, which just completed its fourth season as a program, built upon the most successful season in program history in 2025…Coming off a 16-2 record in Empire 8 Conference play and an E8 Regular Season Championship, the Gators set program single-season records for both wins and E8 Conference victories (27-15/18-6 E8)...RSC earned the two seed and finished second in the Empire 8 Conference Championship Tournament…The Gators have gone 50-32, 34-8 in the E8, across the past two season…RSC got off to a 12-0 start in Conference play the spring…RSC clinched a spot in the E8 Championship Tournament for the fourth time with an April 23rd win vs. SUNY Poly...The Gators, which scored double-digit runs 18 times this season, entered the playoffs ranked second in the E8 with a .313 batting average...Ten Gators earned All-E8 honors…Figueras and senior pitcher/outfielder Evan Grimes (Clifton Park, NY/Shenendehowa/SUNY Adirondack) were voted first-team All-Conference…Figureras, one of ten four-year Gators from the inaugural season in 2022 to graduate in May, ranked third in the Conference with 15 doubles...The shortstop, who slashed .343/.562/.439, finished his spring second all-time with 123 career hits…He played in 156 career games, starting 148 of them, both program career records…Grimes, who repeated as a first-team All-Conference selection, Finished the spring tied for fourth in the E8 in doubles, tied for fifth in total bases, sixth in homers, and tied for seventh in both hits and walks...On the mound, the lefty topped the Conference in complete games...He completed the season ranked third among E8 hurlers with six wins and two saves...Grimes fanned 62 batters and registered a .208 opposing batting average, both good for fourth in the Conference...Lubanski, Stearns and senior pitcher Jaylen Cuevas (Bronx, NY/Fordham Prep) garnered second-team accolades… Lubanski, the program's all-time leader in RBI (132), hits (157) and doubles (44), finished the season third in the E8 in RBI, fourth in doubles and fifth in hits…Stearns closed the season as the program career record holder for batting average (.372), homers (16), on-base percentage (.464) and slugging percentage (.628)...He became just the sixth Gator to tally 100 career hits at No. 12 SUNY Brockport (5/9)...The health sciences major earned the 2025 E8 Baseball Torchbearer Award for having the highest GPA among teams competing in the E8 Championship Tournament Finals...Cuevas, one of the ten original Gators, was a force in the bullpen, registering a 31:9 strikeout to walk ratio across 35.1 innings…Junior catcher Collin Casey (Marlboro, NY/Marlboro/Saint Rose), DeGroot, and junior reliever Aidan Green (Whitesboro, NY/Whitesboro/Onondaga CC) represented RSC on the third-team…Lubanski, Grimes, and junior pitcher Xavier Garcia (Greenfield Center, NY/Saratoga Springs/SUNY Adirondack) were chosen for the 2025 E8 Conference Championship Tournament Team…Head Coach Nick Pontari and his staff were named E8 Coaching Staff of the Year in 2024…Stearns was selected the E8 Player of the Week for the period ending Sunday, March 16…He hit .435 with 10 runs scored, two homers, and 10 RBI across six games…DeGroot was chosen the E8 Pitcher of the Week for the period ending Sunday, March 30…He allowed just one hit across six shutout innings to help RSC start E8 play 3-0 at Houghton…Garcia was selected the E8 Pitcher of the Week for the periods ending Sunday, April 6 and Sunday, April 13…The lefty allowed zero earned runs and struck out 11 Keuka batters across six innings of work in the home win on April 4…He then tossed seven shutout innings to get the win on April 11 vs. Alfred…Garcia allowed just one hit and whiffed 12 Saxon batters to move to 3-0 in his RSC debut spring…Casey was chosen an E8 Player of the Week for the period ending Sunday, May 4…He slashed .583/1.333/.706 with seven runs scored, two homers and seven RBI across the final four games of the regular season…Numerous Gators have hit career milestones this season…Lubanski surpassed the 100 career RBI mark during the three-game series sweep of Alfred and had career hit number 150 on May 4 vs. Elmira…In April, senior outfielder Leandro Guzman (New Britain, CT/New Britain), senior outfielder Jared Russell (Colonie, NY/Colonie), and Figueras tallied career hit number 100…On the mound, Cuevas became the second Gator to record 100 career strikeouts while saving a 4-2 victory vs. Gordon on March 14...He headed into the postseason atop the E8 with three saves.
