NATCHITOCHES - Northwestern State senior left fielder Eric DeBlanc has been named the 2010 Capital One Bank/Southland Conference Student-Athlete of the Year, the league office announced on Wednesday in conjunction with the release of the All-Academic Baseball Teams.

DeBlanc, a native of Scott, La., is joined on the team by Demon pitcher Ryan Zimmerman, who garnered second team honors.  DeBlanc is the second Northwestern State baseball player to receive the high academic honor, joining Bobby Barbier who earned the award in 2006.

A first-team all-conference selection in the outfield, DeBlanc led the Demons this past season with a .382 batting average that also ranked second in the league.  He set the Northwestern record with a hit in 28 consecutive games while his 83 hits tied him for sixth in the conference and are the fourth-most in a single season in school history.

An ABCA All-South Central Region second-team selection, DeBlanc hit six home runs with 39 RBI, had 15 doubles, four triples and was a perfect 10-for-10 in stolen bases en route to leading the Demons to a second-place finish and a conference-record 17th Southland tournament appearance.

Zimmerman, a native of Fremont, Calif., had a 3.14 gpa in psychology.  He was a third team all-conference performer this past year after he compiled a 6-5 record and a 3.74 ERA.  He led the team with two complete games with one of those being a 5-hit shutout over Sam Houston State back on April 3.

He helped hurl the Demons to another shutout in his very next start and struckout a career-high 10 batters in a win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

Zimmerman was recently drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 30^th round of the Major League Baseball Draft.

Established in the 2002-03 academic year, the conference honors one student-athlete from each of the 17 championship sports who achieves excellence in academics, athletics and community/campus service.

The student-athlete of the year, selected by the league's awards committee, must have attained athletics achievement for at least two years at the nominating institution, possess at least a 3.20 cumulative GPA and demonstrate extracurricular service at his campus and or community.

The all-academic teams are voted on by the head coaches, sports information directors and academic/compliance administrators from each Southland university. Student-athletes must possess a 3.0 cumulative GPA, have completed one full academic year at the nominating institution and participated in at least 50 percent of the team's competition to qualify for the all-academic squad.

Included in Capital One Bank's support of the Southland Conference Academic Awards Program is the F.L. McDonald Postgraduate Scholarship, the All-Academic Teams, the Student-Athlete of the Year, the Scholar-Athlete Award and the Commissioner's Honor Roll.

2010 Southland Baseball All-Academic Teams

*Student-Athlete of the Year

2Two-time academic selection

3CoSIDA All-Academic District VI

4First-team all-conference