SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. -- Former Slippery Rock University baseball standout Matt Adams recently received his first professional promotion as the St. Louis Cardinals moved him from rookie-league to short-season Class A competition.

Adams, the 23rd-round pick of the Cardinals in June's Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft, made his debut Monday with the Batavia (N.Y.) Muckdogs of the New York-Penn League. He was 1-for-4 with two RBIs in a 9-4 win over the Williamsport (Pa.) Crosscutters.

The leading hitter among NCAA Division II batters last spring with a .495 average as a junior catcher-first baseman for The Rock, Adams quickly made the transition from aluminum bat to wood bat and continued to tear the cover off the baseball.

He batted .378 with six doubles, a team-high six home runs and 24 RBIs, which tied for the team lead, in 30 games with the Cardinals' rookie-league team, the Johnson City (Tenn.) Cardinals, before being moved upt to Batavia.

A native of Philipsburg and graduate of Philipsburg-Osceola High School, Adams played three seasons at SRU and earned All-America honors in each of those seasons. He received first-team All-America honors in 2009 from both Daktronics, Inc. (Division II sports information directors) and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association. He was also the Daktronics national Player of the Year.

Adams earned second-team All-America status last spring from the American Baseball Coaches Association.

In addition to leading the nation in hitting, Adams ranked fifth nationally in on base percentage with a .566 mark, eighth in both slugging percentage (.853) and total doubles (24), ninth in doubles per game (0.47), 10th in total hits (91) and 12th in total bases (157).

He also ranked in the top 50 nationally in six other statistical categories: runs per game (1.25, 34th), total runs (64, 35th), runs batted in per game (1.25, 37th), runs batted in (64, 40th), total home runs (14, 48th) and home runs per game (0.27, 49th).

In addition to his All-America honors this spring, Adams earned regional Player of the Year honors from Daktronics, the ABCA and the NCBWA. He was also selected by the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference-Western Division head coaches as the division's Player of the Year.

The first-team All-America honors earned by Adams last spring completed an ascent up the national honors list. He earned third-team NCBWA All-America status as a freshman in 2007 and was a second-team NCBWA All-America selection in 2008, as well as being named to honorable mention ABCA All-America status.

Adams was also the recipient of three straight all-region citations from the ABCA, Daktronics and the NCBWA and earned All-PSAC-West first-team honors in each of his three collegiate seasons. He was the PSAC-West Rookie of the Year in 2007..

In addition to his batting average school record, Adams also set a new school record for single-season slugging percentage (old mark: .807 by Brad Lowe, 1998) and tied the SRU single-season records for hits (91 by Joe Neidrick, 2003) and doubles (24, Adams, 2007).

Adams also departed SRU with the school's career batting average and slugging percentage records. His career batting average of .454 is 51 points higher than the previous best mark of .403 set by Sal Agostinelli (1981-83). His career slugging percentage of .749 is over 100 points higher than the mark of .640 set by John Samsa (1981-83). 

Behind Adams' lead, The Rock compiled a 36-15 final record and finished third in the PSAC-West standings last spring.