WILLIAMSBURG, Va. - The awards continue to roll in for William and Mary freshman first baseman Michael Katz as he was recently named a freshman All-American by multiple media outlets.  On June 6, Katz was selected by Collegiate Baseball to the 2012 Louisville Slugger Freshman All-America Team, and on June 11, the Falls Church, Va., native garnered First-Team Freshman All-America honors chosen by the National Collegiate Baseball Writer's Association (NCBWA).

Katz earned the honors after his outstanding freshman campaign culminated in a .316 batting average to go along with 58 RBIs and 10 homers.  He led the Green and Gold in multi-RBI games (12), runs batted in and home runs.  In the CAA, Katz finished the season ranking second in both RBIs and sacrifice flies (9), while standing fifth in home runs as he claimed CAA All-Rookie Team accolades.   

His first collegiate home run came in a 3-for-3 and two RBI performance in the series finale at No.1-ranked Florida on Feb. 28.  Katz continued his strong play as he tallied five RBIs, which included a grand slam in the, 9-5, win at Richmond on March 27.  On April 9, he was named the CAA Rookie of the Week after batting .318 for the week to go along with eight RBIs, eight runs scored, seven hits and two home runs.  In his rookie of the week performance, Katz went 3-for-6 with four RBIs, three runs scored and his second grand slam of the season against Delaware on April 7.

Katz is just the fourth Tribe baseball player to garner freshman All-America honors, and the first to be named a NCBWA Freshman All-American as he joins Mitch Walk (2001), Forrest Cory (2003) and Greg Sexton (2004) with the distinctions.

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