AUSTIN, Texas – Peyton Crispin of Oklahoma City University gained recognition for his academic and athletic accomplishments as the NAIA baseball academic all-American® of the year as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America.
Crispin became the first Star to garner the award since Chad Carman boasted of being the 2012 CoSIDA college-division baseball academic all-America® of the year. Oklahoma City's Frederic Walter joined Crispin on the academic all-America first team.
Oklahoma City has accumulated 97 all-time CoSIDA academic all-America honors. Those Stars who have raked in academic all-American acclaim in 2021-22 are Crispin, Walter, Lexi Duff (softball), Kennedy Jackson (softball), Sophia Salak (volleyball) and Abby Selzer (women's basketball).
Crispin, a senior from Lookeba, Okla., earned his human performance degree with a cumulative grade-point average of 3.68. Crispin took the second CoSIDA academic all-American accolade of his career after being voted to the second team for 2020. Crispin's academic achievements include three-time CoSIDA academic all-district, two-time NAIA scholar-athlete, two-time Sooner Athletic Conference scholar-athlete, SAC baseball student-athlete of the year, three-time academic all-conference and three-time SAC commissioner's honor roll.
In 2022, Crispin topped the NAIA with 30 doubles and rated fifth in batting average (.456) and sixth in RBIs (84) and slugging percentage (.887). Crispin amassed 14 homers, 89 hits, 60 runs scored and six triples. He posted a .990 fielding percentage. Crispin provided Oklahoma City with two walk-off hits – a home run against Texas Wesleyan on May 8 in the conference tournament and a two-run double against Bethany (Kan.) on Feb. 20 at Jim Wade Stadium. He hit two homers against Wayland Baptist (Texas) on March 5 and drove in a season-high five runs twice in the series vs. Wayland Baptist on March 5-6. Crispin turned in a season-best 5-for-6 effort against Wayland Baptist on March 6.
Crispin collected first-team NAIA all-American, first-team all-SAC, a conference gold glove award and SAC player of the week for March 7-13 this year. Crispin landed two all-conference nods in his career. Crispin supplied OCU with a .389 batting average, 31 homers, 170 RBIs, 242 hits, 120 runs scored, 73 doubles, seven triples and 17 stolen bases in his career.
Walter produced a 3.97 GPA studying computer science. Walter, a senior from Montigny, France, has been three-time academic all-district, two-time NAIA scholar-athlete, two-time SAC scholar-athlete and two-time conference commissioner's honor roll.
Walter's totals for the season are a .357 average, 13 homers, 48 RBIs, 45 runs scored, 55 hits, 17 doubles, a triple and seven steals. Walter picked up second-team all-conference this year. Walter turned in a .321 average, 24 homers, 105 RBIs, 94 runs scored, 128 hits, 30 doubles, five triples and nine steals in his career.
OCU (49-6) won the SAC regular-season and tournament championships and hosted the NAIA Championship Opening Round this year. The Stars held a spot in the top five of the NAIA rankings four times, reaching No. 3 this season. Denney Crabaugh scooped up career victory No. 1,600 on May 16 in a 7-5 win over Kansas Wesleyan at Jim Wade Stadium in the NAIA Championship Opening Round Oklahoma City Bracket.
The academic all‐America® baseball team, chosen by CoSIDA, honors the nation's top student‐athletes for their combined performances on the field and in the classroom. CoSIDA began the distinguished academic all-America® program in 1952, and since then, has honored thousands of deserving student-athletes from numerous sports across all divisions with these elite academic all-America® scholar-athlete honors.
To be eligible for academic all-America® consideration, a student-athlete must be a varsity starter or key reserve, maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.30 on a scale of 4.00, have reached sophomore athletic and academic standings at his/her current institution and be nominated by his/her sports information director.
