AMERICUS, Ga. -- Georgia Southwestern State University's Tucker Smith was named the 2020-21 Peach Belt Conference Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year by the league office on Thursday. The award is the highest individual honor given by the conference to student-athletes and is chosen by the league's Faculty Athletic Representatives.

The native of Fort Walton Beach, Fla., completed his collegiate baseball career at Georgia Southwestern in May and was named the Peach Belt Conference co-Pitcher of the Year. He's the third pitcher in Peach Belt history to repeat as Pitcher of the Year. Smith had the lowest opponents batting average (.184) in the league and led with 87 1/3 innings pitched. He ranked second in the conference in strikeouts (90). He recently signed with the Houston Apollos of the American Association of Professional Baseball and will make his third start for the Apollos this evening.

Earlier this spring, Smith earned NCAA Division II National Pitcher of the Week honors for the week ending March 14, 2021, from the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) after throwing a no-hitter at Claflin University on March 12. Over his collegiate career, Smith is a two-time All-PBC First Team selection, three-time PBC Pitcher of the Week, two-time NCBWA Southeast Region Pitcher of the Week, 2019 and 2021 American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA)/Rawlings Southeast Region Second Team selection and 2019 and 2021 Division 2 Conference Commissioners Association (D2CCA) Southeast Region First Team selection.

Smith was also named to the PBC Team of Academic Distinction and is a PBC Presidential Honor Roll Gold Scholar. Smith graduated this spring from Georgia Southwestern with a master's degree in human resource management. He posted a 3.70 GPA in his graduate studies and held a perfect 4.0 in completing his bachelor's degree at GSW in business administration. He is the third GSW male student-athlete to win the Scholar-Athlete of the Year honor in the last four years and fourth overall.