PORTLAND, Ore. --- For the fourth straight year, the Portland Pilots baseball team earned the ABCA Team Academic Excellence Award, which honors high school and college programs that posted a GPA over 3.0 for the academic year. 2016 was the inaugural year for the award, making the Pilots a perfect four-for-four.
 
Teams from every level of college and high school baseball were honored with the award, which recognizes teams coached by ABCA members that posted a GPA over 3.0 on a 4.0 scale for the 2017-18 academic year.
 
In order to qualify for the ABCA Team Academic Excellence Award, programs must meet the following criteria:
• Must be a high school or college team
• Team must have a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.00 on a 4.0 scale during the 2017-18 academic year
• Head coach must be a current ABCA member
 
The American Baseball Coaches Association has a long tradition of recognizing the achievements of baseball coaches and student-athletes. The ABCA/Rawlings All-America Teams are the nation's oldest, founded in 1949, and the ABCA's awards program also includes the ABCA/Rawlings All-Region Awards, the ABCA/Diamond Regional & National Coaches of the Year and several other major awards such as the ABCA Hall of Fame and the Ethics in Coaching Award.