May 13, 2005

After all the accolades that have come to senior first baseman Chris Looze for his on-field performance, it was only just that he receive some recognition for his off-field achievements in the classroom. On Friday, the biology major with a 3.90 grade-point average was named to the 2005 Academic All-District III baseball first team by ESPN The Magazine.

Looze is one of four Colonial Athletic Association student-athletes named to the first team which is comprised of 11 players, four of them infielders. Looze will now be place on the national ballot where he has a chance to become an Academic All-American. Senior pitcher James Burok of Old Dominion, senior infielder Will Rhymes of William & Mary and sophomore Scott Sizemore of Virginia Commonwealth are the other CAA student-athletes to earn first-team honors.

District III is comprised of schools in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. The CAA had more representatives on the first team than any other conference, beating out the ACC, SEC and Southern Conference, among others.

Looze is currently batting .323 with 12 home runs and 61 RBI. He is among the top 10 in the nation in RBI per game, and he owns the Mason school record for RBI in a career (198) and RBI in a season (81 in 2004). Looze was named a second-team All-American in 2004 by the American Baseball Coaches Association and he was first-team All-CAA. In 2003, he was second-team All-CAA. Looze is currently one home run shy of tying the Mason school record for home runs in a career (45). He is also in the Mason all-time top 10 for batting average, slugging percentage, hits and doubles.

Looze and the rest of the George Mason baseball team take the field on Friday, May 20 when the Patriots take on James Madison in the final regular-season series of 2005. After that three-game series, Mason will participate in the CAA Tournament at Wilmington, N.C. from May 25-28.