Baseball | 6/23/2016 12:00:00 PM
BAY CITY, Mich. -- Three Wayne State University student-athletes are recipients of the 2016 GLIAC Spring Commissioner's Award. Redshirt junior outfielder
Griffin Harms (Bingham Farms, Mich. / Birmingham Groves) from the baseball team, along with senior pitcher
Mackenzie Boehler (Saginaw, Mich. / Swan Valley) and redshirt junior pitcher/outfielder
Lyndsay Butler (Cambridge, Ont.) from the softball squad were honored for outstanding athletic and academic achievement.
Their selections give WSU 40 GLIAC Commissioner's Award honorees from 32 different individuals since the inception of the program in the fall of 2007. The eight two-time recipients of the GLIAC Commissioner's Award from WSU are Alison Allen (softball),
Cauli Bedran (men's swimming), Thomas Ducret (men's tennis), Catherine Leix (women's swimming), Josh Renel (football),
Kayla Scott (women's swimming), Ashley St. Andrew (women's swimming) and Michael Wiseman (baseball).
The awards are presented after the Fall, Winter, and Spring athletic seasons to six female and six male GLIAC student-athletes that excel both in the classroom and on the fields of play. All grade-point averages are based on a 4.0 scale.
Harms started all 52 games this past season and hit .369 with six home runs, 48 RBI and 120 total bases. He collected ABCA/Rawlings First Team All-Region, D2CCA Second Team All-Midwest Region and First Team All-GLIAC honors. He slugged .606 and was second on the team with 23 doubles, while tying for the team lead with three triples. The team's primary center fielder finished with 32 extra-base hits, which is the most all-time in the 76 years of WSU baseball. Harms' 23 doubles ranked 12th in the country and was the second-most in program history. He ranked third in the GLIAC in doubles (23), sixth in triples (3), eighth in RBI (48), eighth in total bases (120) and 10th in batting average (.369). Harms was named GLIAC North Division Player of the Week on two occasions.
A finance major, Harms maintains a 3.70 cumulative GPA and has been on the Athletic Director's Honor Roll (Term GPA 3.5+) all eight of his semesters at WSU. In addition, he is a three-time GLIAC All-Academic Excellence Team selection and also earned CoSIDA Academic All-District distinction in 2016.
Boehler was a First Team All-GLIAC selection and posted an 18-4 overall record with a 1.58 ERA in her 25 appearances (17 complete games) in the circle this season. She struck out 128 batters in 141 and 2/3 innings, while opponents hit just .211 off the right-hander. Boehler tossed five complete-game shutouts, including a 1-0 eight-inning triumph over Maryville in the NCAA Midwest Region championship game. WSU scored one run total in her four losses.
She graduated with a bachelor's degree in criminal justice honors in just three-and-a-half years and is pursuing her master's degree at WSU. Boehler has been named to the Athletic Director's Honor Roll all eight of her semesters on campus, carrying a 3.97 GPA as an undergrad and a 4.00 GPA in her master's program. She was named to the GLIAC All-Academic Excellence Team in 2014, 2015 and 2016.
Butler is coming off one of the best seasons in the nearly 100 years of WSU athletics. She was selected as the NFCA Division II National Player of the Year and was named the DII Honda Athlete of the Year nominee for softball. She was voted to the NFCA All-America First Team as the pitcher/utility after earning NFCA First Team All-Midwest Region accolades. The Ontario native was elected to the D2CCA All-America First Team as the pitcher/utility after earning the D2CCA Midwest Region Player of the Year honors as well as First Team All-Midwest Region. She was selected as the GLIAC Player of the Year and was also voted to the All-GLIAC First Team. Butler started all 60 games and hit .483 with 12 home runs and 42 RBI, while slugging .826 and finished with a .521 on-base percentage. She also scored a team-high 60 runs. In the circle, she went 29-6 compiling a 0.77 ERA with 227 strikeouts in 226 and a 1/3 innings. She made 40 appearance, including 33 starts, and collected four saves to go along with her 11 shutouts. The opposing team hit .164 against her in 2016.
A psychology major, Butler carries a 3.51 GPA and was voted to the CoSIDA Academic All-America Second Team as a pitcher after earning CoSIDA Academic All-District First Team accolades. She was selected to the GLIAC All-Academic Excellence Team for the first time in her career after two years on the GLIAC All-Academic Team. Butler has been named to the Athletic Director's Honor Roll (Term GPA 3.5+) four times in her career including both semesters of the 2015-16 academic year and was named to the Coach's Honor Roll (Term GPA 3.0-3.49) three times. Additionally, she is a member of the WSU Student-Athlete Leadership Council.
