May 18, 2009

IRVING, Texas - The academic honors continue to roll in for University of Memphis pitcher Brennon Martin, as the Tigers' ace was named to the 2009 Conference USA All-Academic Team, as selected by the league's sports information directors.

Martin, the lone junior to make the academic team, earned CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine All-District IV First Team honors on May 7. He graduated with a 3.46 GPA in management on May 9. Martin joins Ben Grisham (2007), Michael Murray (2007), Neil Schenk (2008) and Trey Wiedman (2008) as the five Tigers to be honored on this team since its inception. A product of Memphis Harding Academy, Martin is a four-time Dean's List student-athlete (Fall 2005, Spring 2006, Fall 2007, Fall 2008), a four-year member of C-USA Commissioner's Honor Roll (2006-09) and a Tiger 3.0 student-athlete (Fall 2005-Fall 2008).

On the field, Martin had a career year in 2009, going 6-4 with a 4.66 ERA in 13 starts. The Tigers' No. 1 pitcher, he struck out a team and career-high 59 batters and walked just 18. His 83 innings pitched ranks second in C-USA this year, and is the most by a Tiger pitcher since 2004.

Martin won five of his first six decisions and highlighted his season with wins over No. 2 Rice (Mar. 27), Troy (Feb. 27), Valparaiso (Mar. 6), UCF (Apr. 3), SIU-Edwardsville (Apr. 10) and Southern Miss (May 9). Averaging over six innings per starts, the southpaw pitched the Tigers to the ninth inning three times this year, including blanking Troy through a career-long 8.2 innings en route to a 7-5 victory. Martin fanned a career-high nine in a 6-3 win over SIU-E.

2009 C-USA BASEBALL ALL-ACADEMIC TEAM

Name               School      Cl.    GPA   Major
Brandon Henderson  ECU         Sr.    3.31  Construction Management
Drew Schieber      ECU         Sr.    3.63  Exercise Physiology
Blake Kelso        Houston     So.    3.42  Economics
Andrew Blain       Marshall    Grad.  3.66  Exercise Science - Cardiac Rehabilitation
Brennon Martin     Memphis     Jr.    3.46  Management
*Jimmy Comerota    Rice        Sr.    3.26  Economics and Sport Management
*James Ewing       USM         Sr.    3.73  Philosophy
Jonathan Garrett   Tulane      Sr.    3.35  Bio-Medical Engineering
Nick Crawford      UAB         So.    3.46  Finance
*James Oliver      UAB         Sr.    3.84  Biology
*Kiko Vazquez      UCF         Sr.    3.43  Sports and Fitness Education







*Repeat Selection