May 12, 2005

University of Portland first baseman Matthew Peters has been named to the 2005 ESPN The Magazine District 8 All-Academic Baseball Second Team, as selected by members of the College Sports Information Directors of America from the states of Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington.

Peters becomes the sixth player in Pilot baseball history to garner CoSIDA Academic All-District 8 honors and first since Cory Lunde was honored in 2000.

The Las Vegas, Nev. native is a junior eligibility-wise, but has already completed his undergraduate degree as a Life Science major with a 3.51 grade-point average. He currently holds a 3.90 GPA as a graduate student while pursuing his Master's of Business Administration.

Peters, who was told by doctors that his baseball career was over after suffering a broken back while swinging in batting practice at Feather River Community College three years ago, completed a miraculous comeback to baseball and was Portland's No. 1 pitcher a year ago.

After arm issues forced him from the mound back into the field as a position player, Peters has responded by earning the everyday job at first base with a .973 fielding percentage and has been Portland's cleanup batter all season. A junior eligibility-wise, he is currently second in the West Coast Conference with nine home runs and also leads Portland with 29 RBI and is slugging a team-best .470. Peters is batting .245 with 18 runs scored and seven doubles.

University of Portland CoSIDA Academic All-District 8 Baseball Honorees
Ted Sheedy, 1988
Kevin Jones, 1994
Steve Rooklidge, 1994
Jason Mickel, 1995
Darren Hartman, 1997
Cory Lunde, 2000
Matthew Peters, 2005