As the team record-holder in almost every offensive category for the revived College of The Albemarle baseball team, Jake Stone turned in on-the-field performances that future Dolphins are likely to find difficult to surpass.

Now he’s set the bar as high as possible in terms of individual recognition.

Stone, a two-time All-Region 10 player, has been named a first-team Division II National Junior College Athletic Association All-American.

According to COA athletic director Jeff Carter, Stone, a third baseman and shortstop, may be the first baseball player in school history to receive such an honor. The college fielded a baseball team several decades ago, but it was shut down after the 1977 season.

“To my knowledge, Jake is the first student-athlete from COA to receive first- team honors,” Carter said. “In our trophy case, there are certificates for two former baseball players who received honorable mention All-American, Donnie Hatcher in 1973 and Eddie Gates in 1976.”

College of The Albemarle head coach Norbie Wilson, who has led the two-year-old Dolphins to a winning record in each season, said Stone’s selection was significant for the program as well as the player.

“This is tremendous that we have helped produce a Junior College All-American in just two seasons,” he said. “That’s phenomenal. I am extremely proud of that, considering all the established programs there are around the country. Everybody should be proud ... the school, the team and Elizabeth City.”

Wilson said Stone’s honor will be a valuable tool in recruiting.

“It shows that a kid can come here from a small 1A high school (Topsail) like Jake did, and, if he works hard at it, he can become an All-American,” he said. “It’s all about someone giving you an opportunity, and then seizing that opportunity to become successful.”

In a 2010 interview, Wilson said Stone gave him plenty to work with.

“Jake’s got all the tools,” the COA coach said last May. “He fields well, he throws well, he can hit and hit with power. He’s got tremendous hand-eye coordination. He’s a great contact hitter. Everything he hits doesn’t go out of the yard, but he hits everything hard.”

Stone’s stats hit hard, too. This spring he ranked 25th in the country in batting average (.434) and was among the conference leaders in home runs (eight), RBIs (44) and runs scored (40) for the second straight year.

It was quite a followup from a freshman year that saw Stone bat .453 with 13 homers and 56 RBIs.

Although his numbers were down a bit from 2010, some of that was due to college baseball using a new bat that produced less velocity upon contact with the ball and the fact that Stone was no longer a surprise to opponents.

Wilson said that Stone’s teammates were a factor in his success this season.

“It’s not like we had a lineup full of .300 hitters,” he said. “You would think that people would pitch around him. But our kids did a good job of covering that up.

“They knew Jake was a great hitter and they knew the opposition knew he was a great hitter, and I think we had some quality at-bats in front of and behind him that enabled him to be the kind of hitter that he was.”

Stone will continue his career at Tennessee Wesleyan, a high-powered National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics program that played in the NAIA World Series this year and had two of its players taken in the major league draft several weeks ago.