May 15, 2006

2006 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District Baseball Team

2006 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District Softball Team

CENTER VALLEY, Pa. - Four Patriot League baseball student-athletes and three softball student-athletes were named to the 2006 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District teams, announced last week. Four different schools were represented on the All-District team, including Bucknell, Lafayette, Lehigh and Navy. Bucknell's Matt Capece (Bowie, Md./DeMatha Catholic) and Chris Brannan (Huntington Beach, Calif./Edison), Lafayette's James Conrad (Columbia, Md./Atholton) and Navy's Joe Koessler (Knoxville, Tenn./Farragut) were named to the All-District Baseball Team, while Bucknell's Lauren Wible (Dover, Pa./Dover) and Lehigh's Kate Marvel (Manasquan, N.J./Red Bank Catholic) and Ali Linsk (Langhorne, Pa./Neshaminy) were named to the All-District Softball Team.

Capece was a First-Team All-Patriot League honoree this season, after batting a League-best .447 in Patriot League contests and stealing a team-high 17 bases. Overall, the senior short stop ranked second on the squad with a .345 batting average and has 29 runs scored, eight doubles, a triple and 25 RBI. The civil engineering major held a 3.68 grade point average over four years in Lewisburg, Pa.

Brannan saw action in 32 games this season with the Bison, hitting .283 with 12 runs and 18 RBI. With a 3.74 cumulative GPA, the economics major is a candidate for Suma Cum Laude and is a Dean's List student.

A Second-Team All-Patriot League selection, Conrad hit for a .339 average in 32 games and led the Leopards in stolen bases with 14. In Patriot League play, he hit for a team-best .439 average while slugging at a .537 clip. A mathematics major, Conrad owned a 3.72 overall GPA and was a two-time Patriot League Academic Honor Roll selection.

Koessler went 5-3 for the Mids this season with a 4.17 earned run average. The senior hurler struck out 34 batters and earned one save in 49.2 innings of work. The senior mechanical engineering major maintained a 3.57 grade point average at the U.S. Naval Academy.

Navy senior Joe Koessler

Bucknell's other All-District honoree was Wible, a senior softball player. In Patriot League games, Wible hit .311with seven runs scored and 10 RBI. Overall, Wible collected nine doubles and three home runs. In the classroom, the English major owned a 3.79 GPA.

Marvel was one of two Mountain Hawks named to the All-District Softball team and was a First-Team All-Patriot League selection for the second year in a row in 2006. Marvel ranked first in the League in stolen bases (11) and triples (nine), while hitting .363. The sophomore centerfielder holds down a 3.66 grade point average, while majoring in religion studies.

Joining Marvel on the All-District Softball Team is Linsk, a behavioral neuroscience major with a 3.85 grade point average. On the field, Linsk serves as an outfielder and pinch runner for the Mountain Hawks. This season Linsk has appeared in 36 games, and has three hits in five at-bats, while scoring 17 runs.