TAMPA - During the third quarter of the USF Football teams' upset of nationally ranked West Virginia, University of South Florida baseball team was recognized along with the softball for the teams excellence that both teams have showcased both on the field and in the classroom.

2009 proved to be a successful year not only on the field for USF baseball as they were just as impressive in the classroom as they were on the field in bringing home the 2008-09 BIG EAST Team Academic Excellence Awards for their efforts. For an encore the team was then added yet another recognition for their work in the classroom. This time the award came from inside the USF Athletic department as the Bulls accepted the 2009 Provost Cup for Academic Improvement, which will be awarded annually for the most improved GPA among any USF athletic team, at the USF Athletics Welcome Back dinner on recently.

The Bulls improved to an impressive 3.2 team GPA  in the fall of 2008 then followed it up by posting a 3.21 GPA this past spring.

The softball team finished out the academic year with the highest GPA in the department for the Spring and in program history. The 3.47 GPA, follows a high-performance of 3.41 in the fall.

The team has never earned anything less than a 3.0 GPA under head coach Ken Eriksens' direction.

"All the credit goes to the 25 students on our roster and their academic coaches," said Eriksen. " They are proving that you can combine big time athletics with academics."

The softball team also finished with 21 USF Academic All Stars for the 2008-09 academic year.