Dattalo named to Collegiate Baseball Freshman All-American Team

NATCHITOCHES, La. (NSU) - Michael Dattalo’s 2023 season was one of the best offensive campaigns of any Northwestern State baseball player in school history regardless of classification.

For his performance, which included a school freshman record 83 hits, Dattalo was named a Collegiate Baseball Magazine Freshman All-American on Wednesday morning.

A third baseman who also saw some time at first base, Dattalo becomes the seventh Demon in school history to earn Freshman All-American honors and the first since Daunte Stuart in 2021. He is the second straight position player honored after the first five NSU Freshman All-Americans were pitchers.

He was named to the All-American team as a third baseman.

A 6-foot, 200-pounder from Keller, Texas, Dattalo led Northwestern State in batting average (.372), hits, total bases (125), slugging percentage (.561) and shared the lead with five sacrifice flies. He entered the Southland Conference Tournament leading the league in batting average. He ranked second on the team with eight home runs and 27 walks while his 39 RBIs were third most, two shy of Jake Haze’s team-leading total of 41.

Dattalo led Northwestern State with 25 multi-hit games this season and was third on the team with 10 multi-RBI games. He had a team-best nine three-hit games and three of the Demons’ six four-hit games in his debut season.

In addition to his hit total that tied him for fourth in school single-season history, Dattalo’s 125 total bases are the eighth-highest total in school single-season history. His 18 doubles were one shy of a top-10 spot in single-season history.

In his first season at the Division I level, Dattalo holds top-100 national marks in toughest to strike out (11.2, 34th), hits (83, 73rd), hits per game (1.48, 74th) and batting average (.372, 83rd) entering Super Regional weekend.

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