06/11/2009 - Duke Sports Information

DURHAM, N.C. – Duke freshman center fielder Will Piwnica-Worms was named to the All-Ping! Freshman Baseball Team, Ping!Baseball announced Thursday.

A third team selection, Piwnica-Worms was the only ACC outfielder that appeared on the national all-freshman squad. He is the second Blue Devil in the past three seasons to appear on the All-Ping! Freshman Team, joining junior Michael Seander, who earned the recognition in 2007.

A 6-2, 195 pound native of St. Louis, Mo. (Ladue Horton Watkins), Piwnica-Worms started all 59 games in center field for Duke. He batted .317 with 13 doubles, four triples and three home runs while ending the season on a 57-game errorless streak.

Piwnica-Worms took little time to adjust in his first season and finished with 24 multi-hit games, which ranked second on the team. Twelve of those multi-hit efforts came in a 16-game span from March 20 to April 8 in which he batted .426 with six doubles, 15 RBI and his first career homer, which he knocked out in a series win against No. 1 North Carolina.

Piwnica-Worms was part of a Duke recruiting class that ranked as the 25th best in the country by Baseball America and helped the Blue Devils finish the 2009 season 35-24 overall and 15-15 in the ACC. They also helped the team reach the ACC Tournament where Duke took down No. 13 Clemson and came within one game of reaching the conference championship before falling to eventual ACC Champion Virginia.

For the complete list of All-Ping! Freshman Baseball honorees, visit Ping!Baseball at http://www.pingbaseball.com/players/allping09_freshman.php.

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