Harding Named Baseball Senior Scholar Athlete
Harding Named Baseball Senior Scholar Athlete
TOWSON, Md. – The Landmark Conference selects 22 senior scholar athletes each year to recognize the top student-athlete in each sport based on academics and athletics.
The honorees must have a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.20 and are selected by a committee of Landmark Conference officers, athletics directors, senior woman administrators, faculty athletic representatives, and sports information directors.
Connor Harding is the fourth Royal to garner Landmark Baseball Senior Scholar Athlete honors, joining Chris Psihoules (2009), Justin Champagne (2010), and Bobby Della Polla (2013). Harding is Scranton's third winner this year, joining Megan Gallagher (Field Hockey), and Lauren Byrne (Women's Swimming & Diving).
Harding hit .396 over the past four seasons for Scranton with five home runs, 88 RBI, 124 runs scored, 172 hits, 24 doubles, 12 triples and 51 stolen bases. Playing centerfield for the Royals, he also did not make an error during the last two seasons of his career and finished with a .977 fielding percentage and eight outfield assists.
He is the program's all-time leader in triples (12) and ranks second in stolen bases (51) as well as fifth in both batting average (.396) and hits (172) and tied for sixth in runs scored (106). As a sophomore in 2019, Harding set a pair of single-season records with 70 hits and nine triples.
During Harding's career, the Royals captured the program's first Landmark Conference title in 2021 and competed in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history. Scranton won the Landmark with a thrilling three-game series victory over ETown and put forth a valiant effort against perennial powerhouses St. Thomas (Minn.) and Chapman in NCAA Regionals.
The Vestal, N.Y., native is a two-time All-Landmark Conference honoree and earned Landmark Player of the Year honors in 2019. That same season, Harding also garnered All-American and All-Region accolades from D3baseball.com.
In the classroom, Harding earned a degree from Scranton as a Business Administration major with an impressive 3.96 GPA and is a two-time CoSIDA Academic All-American and All-District honoree.
Complete List of Senior Scholar Athletes