DURHAM, N.C. – After spending time with the Weston Creek Indians of the Australian Capital Territory League, former North Carolina Central University baseball student-athlete Gavin Guarrera earned a spot on the Canberra Calvary of the highly-touted Australian Baseball League.

“Signing a contract to play professional baseball is a dream come true for me,” said Guarrera.  “Having the chance to play in the same league as guys who play affiliated and independent baseball is a great opportunity to really challenge my ability.  Hopefully this will open up other chances to continue my career.”

Guarrera was one of the best closers in the MEAC (Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference) in his final season, surrendering just 22 hits in 29.0 innings of work.  Had he thrown one more inning he would have officially had the second-lowest earned run average in the MEAC, as conference rules stipulate that a pitcher must throw at least 30 innings to count in the league statistics.  He racked up 24 strikeouts and set a modern era record for saves in a season with eight.  During his two-year tenure, he also set a new career modern era mark with 14 saves.

“We are all very proud of Gavin,” said NCCU head coach Jim Koerner.  “The ABL is one of the top international professional baseball leagues.  The league is filled with players from Major League Baseball’s minor league system.  He is going to have the opportunity to prove himself against some very good competition.”

The lefty also became the first student-athlete at NCCU to earn Academic All-America honors at the NCAA Division I level as he was named third team after earning a 3.93 GPA (grade point average) graduating this past May with a degree in Sociology.  In fact, he was the first male student-athlete to accomplish that feat at NCCU, the first since 2003 and the fourth overall.

Guarrera made his debut on Nov. 2 for the Calvary in their opening weekend series going 5.0 innings in a 7-6 loss to the Melbourne Aces.

The Canberra Calvary are based in the capital territory of Australia and are the defending ABL Champions after finishing the season 27-19 and sweeping the Perth Heat in the championship series.  For more information on the Calvary, check out the website http://web.theabl.com.au/index.jsp?sid=t4066.