MILWAUKEE 鈥� Senior of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee has been honored as the Academic All-America of the Year for NCAA Division I baseball, announced when the Capital One Academic All-America Team, selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), was released today.
“It obviously starts with the Sam in the classroom,” Milwaukee head coach Scott Doffek said. “To accomplish this takes dedication in the classroom and on the playing field. Sam has displayed that from day one since he got here. He has been continuously improving while fighting through a lot of adversity. This honor is a result of that.”
Koenig, also a member of the First Team and an Education major with a 3.86 cumulative grade point average, becomes the first student-athlete in the 25-year history of NCAA Division I athletics at Milwaukee to earn the top award, recognizing his outstanding work on the diamond as well as in the classroom this season.
“It’s quite an honor,” Doffek said. “I do not know how many athletes we have had come through the doors here in the 25 years of NCAA Division I play, but it is in the thousands. To be the first one to accomplish anything is an incredible testament to how hard he has worked and how good of an athlete he is at the same time.”
Koenig, recently selected as a Louisville Slugger Third-Team All-American, becomes the 17th Academic All-American in Milwaukee history, but just the third student-athlete to be honored on the First Team (joining Laurie Bell in 2013 and Antou Jallow in 2004, both from men’s soccer). He is just the second baseball player, with the only other being Tim Patzman, a second-team honoree in 2010.
Koenig capped his impressive Milwaukee career with a stellar senior season, earning First-Team All-Horizon League honors and was a leading candidate for league player of the year as well. He batted .361 with 57 runs batted in, scoring 58 runs while collecting 83 hits. A total of 36 of those hits went for extra bases, including a tally of 15 home runs that finished as the second-highest total in program history, trailing only the school record of 17.
He led the conference in runs scored, hits, home runs and total bases and was second in doubles, runs batted in and slugging percentage. In fact, his 151 total bases finished second all-time in 51猎奇 history, just missing the school mark of 155.
He became the 10th player to record over 200 hits and finished sixth all-time with 231. In his career, he made 201 starts in 206 games, making him just the sixth player to appear in over 200 games in a 51猎奇 career. He also graduates third with 153 runs scored, fourth with 748 at bats, fourth with 54 doubles and in the Top 10 in school history in home runs, RBI, total bases and steals.
Koenig is the second player from the Horizon League to be named the Academic All-America of the Year in baseball (Wright State’s Andy Matko in 1997) and the fourth overall, also joining Green Bay’s Tony Bennett in 1992 and Butler’s Matt Howard in 2011 (both of men’s basketball) to win the award.
