UF's Brandon McArthur Signs Professional Contract
Monday, July 20, 2009 | Baseball
Third baseman Brandon McArthur (Seffner, Fla.) recently signed a professional baseball contract with the Traverse City (Mich.) Beach Bums of the independent Frontier League. A total of eight players from head coach Kevin O'Sullivan's 2009 club are now playing professionally.
McArthur finished his senior year with a career-high .338 batting average, 41 runs batted in, 25 runs scored and a team-leading 14 doubles. Florida captured its first Southeastern Conference Eastern Division title since 2005, ended its campaign with a 42-22 overall mark and finished among the top 15 in all of the collegiate baseball polls. The Gators claimed the NCAA Gainesville Regional with three-straight wins, as McArthur was chosen to the All-Tournament team, and earned their third trip to Super Regionals in the past six seasons.
McArthur received his bachelor's degree in criminology and is working towards a master's degree in anthropology. He carried a 3.21 grade point average, was a four-time selection to the SEC Academic Honor Roll and is one of only six Gator baseball student-athletes to have been named to the conference honor roll at least four times.
Named to the SEC Baseball Community Service Team for the second-consecutive year, McArthur was also presented the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award during the 2009 NCAA College World Series in Omaha, Neb. An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School, the award has grown into the nation's premier tribute to college seniors. It identifies personal qualities that define a complete student-athlete, with criteria including excellence in the classroom, character and community, as well as competition on the field.
In his final collegiate season, McArthur played in 59 games, making 41 starts at third base, 12 starts at first base, and six at designated hitter. The infielder ranked among the team leaders in hits (70) and RBI (41) and boasted a .310 average in SEC play with 14 RBI and six doubles. In addition, McArthur rated second on the Gators with a .448 (13-for-29) postseason clip.
He was 3-for-8 (.375) against Southern Miss in the NCAA Super Regional and closed his career by going 2-for-4 with a solo homer in the finale. The final-day production enabled him to finish with a career average of .301. McArthur poked a double in the first meeting with the Golden Eagles that enabled him to win the teams' two-bagger crown.
The previous weekend, he was chosen to the Gainesville Regional All-Tournament squad at third base after a 7-for-12 (.583) performance during UF's three wins that included three multiple-hit outings. He went 3-for-5 in the final game and had two hits during the seven-run fifth inning which paved the way to the 16-5 triumph over Miami (Fla.). McArthur was 2-for-4 and had an RBI double in Saturday's 8-2 conquest of the Hurricanes. He had opened Regional action by going 2-for-3 with a walk in the come-from-behind win over Bethune-Cookman.
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