AUSTIN, Texas – Capping his career with a prestigious honor, Montana State University Billings baseball senior Matt Dillon has been named a Google Cloud Academic All-American announced by CoSIDA on Wednesday.
 
Dillon was a third-team Academic All-American selection, completing his degree in health administration with a cumulative grade point average of 3.72. "Matt is a champion in everything he does in life, and not everyone understands the work it takes to be great in both areas," said MSUB head coach Aaron Sutton on the fifth-year senior. "This guy is the definition of what it means to be a student-athlete."
 
Dillon is the first Academic All-American in this history of Yellowjacket baseball, and just the second player in Great Northwest Athletic Conference history to receive the honor as he joined Bryce Gardinier of Western Oregon in the 2003 season. He was a first-team all-region and unanimous first-team all-GNAC rightfielder during the 2019 season, after ranking second in the conference with 15 home runs and a slugging percentage of .647. Dillon started 49 games, while batting .287 and adding 13 doubles and a triple.
 
The Billings native reached base at a clip of .413, while leading the team with 29 walks drawn on the season. Dillon also scored a team-second best 50 runs, and drove in 42. He racked up 108 total bases and stole three bases in four attempts. Defensively in right field, Dillon had just two errors in 105 chances, posting a fielding percentage of .981 in his final season.
 
Dillon entered MSUB's program in the fall of 2014 as a true freshman out of Skyview High School. After redshirting during the 2015 season, he went on to play in 134 games and start 101 for the 'Jackets from 2016-19. He posted a career batting average of .248, with 18 doubles, 19 home runs, and 68 RBIs.
 
Dillon was the only player from the GNAC to earn Academic All-America honors, and was one of just three players from the west region to be represented. Preston Mott of UC San Diego and Vincenzo Margiotta of Stanislaus State University, both in the California Collegiate Athletic Association, were each second-team selections.
 
Dillon helped MSUB to GNAC regular season titles in 2016, 2018, and 2019, and this spring helped the team to its first-ever GNAC Championships title and berth into the NCAA Division II West Region Championships. MSUB went 33-20 in 2019 and 30-10 in conference play to capture its fourth regular-season crown in the last five years. Overall in Dillon's career, MSUB had a cumulative record of 122-87 (.584) and won 30 games in three of his four years on the field.