MARSHALL, Texas – Making history for the East Texas Baptist University athletic department, baseball student-athlete Jake Miller becomes the Tiger's first winner for the American Southwest Conference Man of the Year award. It is only the second year for the award from the ASC. ETBU also was awarded the ASC Woman of the Year award winner in Ashley Croft to sweep the major award.
 
ETBU becomes the first school in ASC history to sweep all the major awards in one year winning both the Male (Sayers Collins) and Female (Tristen Maddox) Athlete of the Year and Man and Woman of the Year. Along with that, Mollie Dittmar was the ASC's Woman Community Service Award winner.
 
"Congratulations to Ashley Croft and Jake Miller on such a distinctive and very deserving honor. Both Ashley and Jake were respected leaders on their teams and consistently performed at a high level on the field," said ETBU's Vice President for Student Engagement and Athletics Ryan Erwin. "They accomplished so much during their time as an ETBU Tiger and we could not be prouder of their commitment to excellence and servant leadership, which was evident throughout their career in the classroom, in the Marshall community, and athletically. As model student-athletes, who excelled in their athletic pursuits, they displayed great sportsmanship, and were driven by their faith in everything they did. Ashley and Jake's leadership on their teams and throughout the ETBU campus community always went above and beyond and we will forever be grateful for the contributions and the impact they had on everyone they interacted with over the years here 'On the Hilltop' at ETBU."
 
Miller, a shortstop from North Richland Hills, Texas, finished with a Masters of Business Administration and a 4.00 grade-point-average. He was All-ASC Honorable Mention, on the ASC All-Tournament Team, D3baseball.com Team of the Week, and NCBWA National Hitter of the Week Honorable Mention this season along with being on the ABCA All-Defensive Team for Region X. In 2021, he was selected to the All-ASC First Team and the ASC Hitter of the Week, once. Regionally, he made the both the ABCA and D3baseball.com All-Region Second Team.
 
Miller contributed to a historic campaign for Tigers' baseball, leading the team to a record setting 42 wins and third place finish in the NCAA Division III World Series. His key performances helped propell ETBU to its first Super Regional, Regional, and ASC Tournament championships.
 
For the season in 56 games played, he batted .327 and recorded 46 runs scored, 56 hits, 16 doubles, five home runs, 46 runs-batted-in, five stolen bases, had .509 slugging percentage, and 87 total bases. He was first in the ASC for doubles, ninth in RBI, and 10th in total bases.
 
In the classroom, Miller was named 2023 College Sports Communicators Academic All-District. He is a four-time ASC Academic All-Conference member and five-times on the President's List (2018-21). He graduated Cum Laude in 2021 and was on the Provost's list in 2018 earning ETBU's Robert E. Craig Christian Athlete award for academics and athletics in 2022. For the past four years, his teammates voted for him to wear No. 16 jersey (James Morgan Award) for his character, athletic play, and academics.
 
In the community, Miller was the ETBU Student Engagement graduate assistant from 2021-23 where he helped with and planned campus activities. This past academic year, he served as the FCA Campus Vice President, and has been a FCA Campus Group Leader from 2020-23. He organized and led youth baseball camps, sent letters of encouragement to children in hospitals through FCA, served in leadership for church camps, and coordinated other community service events and projects during his career at East Texas Baptist. These opportunities include: Marshall Airport Park ballpark clean up, painting new light posts in downtown Marshall, ETBU Tiger Camp Leader, Operation Christmas Child, Boys and Girls Club of the Big Pines, and summer camp coach for Southlake Carroll Senior High camps.
 
The ASC Man of the Year award is voted on by the athletic directors and is in the second  year of existence.