Two Arizona Wildcats earned All-America honors from Collegiate Baseball on Thursday – and they’re both true freshmen.
DH/third baseman Jacob Berry and catcher Daniel Susac made Collegiate Baseball’s first and second teams, respectively. Berry is the first Wildcat to garner first-team recognition from CB since Alex Mejia in 2012.
Berry, who's from Queen Creek, paced Arizona during the regular season with a .371 batting average and 64 RBIs. The latter led the Pac-12. He also hit a team-high 15 home runs and paces the conference in triples, total bases and extra-base hits.
"That's a big-time honor," said UA coach Jay Johnson, whose team is set to host Grand Canyon on Friday night in the NCAA Tournament. "The first team, you’re talking about 10 hitters in the entire country. So what accomplishment for Jacob. It's well-deserved."
Susac wasn’t far behind his classmate in the Triple Crown categories, piling up 12 homers and 59 RBIs with a .344 average. Susac, who’s from Roseville, California, also started 52 of 55 games behind the plate, recording a .996 fielding percentage and throwing out 8 of 24 would-be base-stealers.
Arizona (40-15) will face Grand Canyon in the second game of the Tucson Regional. The Wildcats are the No. 5 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. First pitch is slated for 7 p.m. at Hi Corbett Field.
