NEW HAVEN, Conn. (June 19, 2019) -- Dominican College baseball standout Justin Decker was named the 2018-19 Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year, as announced on Wednesday by CACC Commissioner Dan Mara.

Decker will now move on for consideration for both the regional and national Division II scholar-athlete of the year awards that will be handed out by the Division II Conference Commissioners Association (D2CCA) later on this summer. Decker will first be considered in the voting for the D2CCA East Region Award, and if he were to win that honor, he would become one of eight finalists for the national award. 

The nominating and voting for the CACC Scholar-Athlete-of-the-Year Award was conducted by the league's 14 sports information directors, while the voting for the D2CCA awards will be conducted by the 24 conference commissioners throughout Division II.

Decker had a fantastic senior season in 2019, as he earned First-Team All-CACC honors while helping to guide the Chargers to a spot in the CACC Championship Final. He recorded his 200th career hit against Southern Connecticut State back on Feb. 22, and he finished the campaign with a .359 batting average, four home runs, 51 runs batted in (RBI), 51 runs scored and 14 stolen bases. Decker's impressive play also garnered regional and national honors following the season. He earned First-Team All-East Region honors from both the D2CCA and American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA), and then went on to earn a pair of All-America honors, including second-team status from the ABCA (also earned honorable-mention honors from the NCBWA).

Decker concludes his stellar career as a three-time All-CACC honoree, earning first-team honors as a sophomore in 2017, second-team accolades as a junior in 2018, and his first-team status this year.

The Rotterdam, N.Y., native has also been a standout in the classroom, as Decker owns a 3.81 cumulative grade point average in his major of financial management. He is a three-time CACC All-Academic Team honoree, while also earning Google Cloud/CoSIDA Academic All-District honors during his sophomore, junior and senior seasons. Decker was also inducted into the Dominican College New York Sigma Chapter of Chi Alpha Sigma.

ABOUT THE CACC
The Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference is an NCAA Division II Conference composed of 14 institutions in Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. The member institutions are Bloomfield College, Caldwell University, Chestnut Hill College, Concordia (N.Y.) College, Dominican (N.Y.) College, Felician University, Georgian Court University, Goldey-Beacom College, Holy Family University, Jefferson (Philadelphia University + Thomas Jefferson University), Nyack College, Post University of Waterbury, University of the Sciences, and Wilmington University.