Senior RHP Cole Johnson has allowed just one earned run on six hits, five of which have been singles, in 17.1 innings of work over his last two starts.

Johnson, Petzold Earn Academic All-District Baseball Honors

May 5, 2011

NOTRE DAME, Ind. – University of Notre Dame senior baseball players Cole Johnson (Hudson, Ohio) and Herman Petzold (Saint Clair Shores, Mich.) have been selected to the Capital One Academic All-District V team. Their names will now appear on the national ballot for a chance to be voted as Academic All-Americans.

Already a finalist for the 2011 Lowe’s Senior Class Award and recent recipient of the Byron V. Kanaley Award, the most prestigious honor presented to an Irish student-athlete, Johnson maintains a 3.68 grade-point average in the College of Science as a double major in pre-professional studies (pre-medicine) and Spanish language and literature. He was named to the Dean’s List for the second time this past fall. Johnson has also been honored as a BIG EAST academic all-star each of the last three years.

Johnson, a right-handed pitcher, has rebounded from an injury-plagued 2010 season with a stellar campaign in ’11. Johnson has pitched far better than his 3-6 record would indicate. Notre Dame has managed to score just 19 runs over his last 10 starts. He has a 2.78 ERA in 11 starts over 74.1 innings of work. He has struck out 57 and walked 19. Johnson leads the Irish pitching staff with nine quality starts. He ranks tied for third in the BIG EAST among starting pitchers in fewest home runs allowed (one), fifth in strikeouts looking (21), seventh in opposing batting average (.214), tied for seventh in innings pitched, tied for eighth in punchouts and tied for 11th in ERA.

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Senior RF Herman Petzold.

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Petzold, who maintains a 3.319 grade-point average in the Mendoza College of Business as a double major in finance and mathematics, entered this season with exactly three base hits and no RBI in 10 at-bats over 11 career games ­– all off the bench. In fact, when first-year Irish head coach Mik Aoki took over the program in June, Petzold was not even listed on the 2011 roster. He contacted Aoki over the summer and expressed interest in returning. Thankfully, Petzold had already taken care of his academic paperwork in order to be eligible as a fifth-year senior and Aoki offered him a spot on the roster.

Petzold earned a starting spot in right field and has not looked back. He is tied or leads the team outright in sacrifice bunts (10), hit-by-pitch (five), on-base percentage (.396), games played (40) and games started (40). Petzold, one of two Irish players hitting over .300, ranks second in batting average (.307), hits (42) and RBI (18). He was the only Irish player to register a hit in each of the first six games this season and has registered a hit in 27 of Notre Dame’s 40 games. Petzold also ranks second on the team with 11 multi-hit games, including a team-best four games with at least three hits.

Joining the Fighting Irish duo on the Academic All-District V squad were Chad Pierce (P, Wisconsin-Milwaukee), Paul Hoenecke (C, Wisconsin-Milwaukee), Ryan Court (IF, Illinois State), Koby Kraemer (IF, Indiana State), Nick O’Shea (IF, Minnesota), AJ Pettersen (IF, Minnesota), Jared Baehl (OF, Evansville) and Nathaniel Thomas (OF, IPFW).

Notre Dame opens a critical BIG EAST series against Rutgers with a doubleheader at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday. The Irish and Scarlet Knights will conclude the series at noon on Sunday. All three games will be broadcast live on WHME Harvest 103.1 FM and at UND.com. Live stats will also be available via GameTracker.

As always, please visit UND.com regularly for full coverage of all Notre Dame athletics news and events.

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