OVERLAND PARK, Kan. ? Appalachian State University first baseman David Towarnicky (New Bern, N.C./New Bern) is one of 30 candidates for the 2010 baseball Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award, Lowe’s announced on Wednesday.
An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School, the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities. To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be classified as an NCAA Division I senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence ? classroom, character, community and competition.
In the classroom, Towarnicky carries a perfect 4.0 grade point average as a double-major in banking and finance and risk insurance management with an international business minor. For his efforts in the classroom and on the playing field, he was named a third-team CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American in 2009. He is the only one of the 30 Senior CLASS candidates that sports a 4.0 GPA.
His character is evident by the fact that upon his graduation from ASU in December, he plans to put a lucrative career in finance on hold and continue his education overseas, where he would like to conduct research in the area of microfinance and the financial needs of poverty-stricken areas of the world. He then aspires to work for an international organization to help bring capital and financial services to people and places that desperately need it.
Towarnicky is an active member of the community, helping spearhead service projects that raised over 6,200 cans of food to help fight hunger in the High Country and provided support to the Crossnore School, a local non-profit home and school for abused children.
On the field, Towarnicky has been the Mountaineers’ starting first baseman since his arrival at ASU, playing in 152 games and making 138 starts at first base over the first three years of his career. The team captain is a .304 career hitter and, perhaps even more impressively, sports a .993 career fielding percentage with just nine errors in 1,291 chances at first base. Last year, he set career highs with a .328 batting average, 64 hits, 12 doubles, 90 total bases, a .433 on-base percentage and seven total sacrifices and is a preseason all-Southern Conference honoree this year.
The 30 candidates will be narrowed to 10 finalists midway through the regular season, and those 10 names will be placed on the official ballot. Ballots will be distributed through a nationwide voting system to media, coaches and fans, who will select one finalist who best exemplifies excellence in the four Cs of classroom, character, community and competition. The winner will be announced at the College World Series in June.
Towarnicky and the Mountaineers open the 2010 campaign on Friday when they square off versus Presbyterian at the Marriott Classic, hosted by USC Upstate in Spartanburg, S.C. The season opener starts at 4 p.m. and can be heard locally on WATA 1450 AM and worldwide at GoASU.com.