Stephen Born

Classroom

A two-time CoSIDA Academic All-American (third team 2016, third team 2017), Stephen Born is an extremely high achiever in the classroom. An operations research major, he has a cumulative GPA of 3.81 through seven semesters at the U.S. Naval Academy. Following graduation, he will be commissioned as an officer in the United States Navy’s submarine division. One of the more highly regarded and selective fields of service for USNA grads, his grades and propensity for technological learning allowed him to select submarines. He will attend Nuclear Power School in Charleston before going to Prototype School. Following that post-grad schooling, he will be assigned a submarine for his duty in the fleet.

Character

Referred to by Head Coach Paul Kostacopoulos as the model Midshipman for his excellence in the fields of military, academics and athletics, Born cares deeply about all three aspects of what it means to be a Midshipman at the Naval Academy, and it shows in his success. Respected in all three branches, he is ranked eighth overall in Military Order of Merit and 100th in Overall Order of Merit out of 1,073 students in the Class of 2018. Quietly confident, he prefers to lead by example but will verbalize a set of clear expectations to whomever he’s leading, either in the hall or on the field. During the fall of 2017, he was selected as a Platoon Commander and was in charge of the wellness and development of 30 Midshipmen in the hall. As a senior, he understands the importance and platform that he has to provide leadership and help develop other Mids morally and mentally in the hall and physically on the field with baseball.

Community

Born is active on the team in charitable causes such as visiting veterans homes and children’s hospitals, as well as helping with youth baseball clinics in the area. Away from the team, he had the opportunity this past summer to travel to Vietnam with a group of Midshipmen to volunteer at an orphanage. He and his group helped with repairs to the orphanage building and made other improvements to the orphanage property. He and his fellow Mids also spent time inside playing with and teaching the children.

Competition

Born heads into his senior season with a career batting average of .314, 98 runs scored, 153 hits, 31 doubles, 89 RBIs and 20 stolen bases over 144 games played. After injuries slightly shortened his freshman season in 2015, he became the Mids’ starting DH in 2016 and was subsequently selected as a member of the All-Patriot League First Team at the end of the year after ranking top-10 in the league in hits, runs, RBIs, doubles and walks. As a junior in 2017, he moved to the outfield and became the Mids’ starting LF. He posted a nearly identical statline to his previous campaign and once again was among the Patriot League’s top-10 in runs, RBIs, stolen bases and doubles. With a similar arc in 2018, he is in line to finish top-15 in Navy’s program record book in games played, runs scored, hits, doubles and RBIs.