Pettit becomes the first student-athlete in school history to be named a First-Team Academic All-American two times. Since Canisius joined the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference for the 1989-90 athletic season, Pettit is also the first male student-athlete from any MAAC school, and second MAAC student-athlete overall, to be named a First-Team Academic All-American twice. Theresa Ferraina from Loyola University earned the honor in women's soccer in 2008 and 2009.

Pettit's honor gives the Canisius College baseball program four Academic All-Americans in the past three seasons with the rest of the conference's baseball programs combining for one honoree during that timeframe. Pettit and Sean Jamieson received the honor in 2011 while Ian Choy earned the accolades in 2010.

The senior third baseman made a team-high 58 appearances on the season, starting 49 games for the Golden Griffins. The All-MAAC Second-Team selection hit .298 with a team-best 39 runs batted in to go along with 59 hits and 30 runs scored. Pettit also posted a career-best .952 fielding percentage during the 2012 season.

Pettit completed coursework toward his Master's in Business Administration during the 2011-12 academic year after graduating with a 4.0 grade point average with his degree in economics in 2011.

Pettit is one of three Division I baseball players to be named a First-team Capital One Academic All-American in 2011 and 2012, joining Michael Roth from the University of South Carolina and James Ramsey from Florida State University as repeat awardwinners.