September 30, 1998

LOS ANGELES -- UCLA's Garrett Atkins was named by Baseball America as a summer first-team All-American at third base. Atkins batted .383 (51-133) for the Cotuit Keetleers in the Cape Cod League, finishing with the second highest average in the league.

Despite being the third youngest player in the Cape Cod League, Atkins batted .047 points higher than the third place finisher (Larry Bigbie, .336) in the batting race and finished just one point behind Robert Kielty (.384).

Atkins led his team in batting average, hits, RBI (25), doubles (11) and tied for the team lead in home runs (three). He started in the Cape Cod League all-star game and was named by the Cape Cod League coaches as the top third baseman in the league.

Ironically, Atkins compiled the same batting average (.383) in 1998 for UCLA. He was named as a third-team All-American by Collegiate Baseball and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers' Association, in addition to being named as a first-team Freshman All-American by Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball.