Three Gator Baseball Players Earn Preseason All-American Honors From NCBWA

Sophomore Austin Maddox (Jacksonville, Fla.), junior Alex Panteliodis (Tampa, Fla.) and junior Preston Tucker (Tampa, Fla.) were each named to the 2011 National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) Pro-Line Athletic Preseason All-America Team released on Wednesday.

A second-team selection to the organization's 11th annual team, Maddox was the SEC's 2010 Freshman of the Year and was named a third-team All-American by the NCBWA for his tremendous performance as a freshman. He was the first rookie from Florida to earn All-America recognition since Brad Wilkerson accomplished the feat in 1996. Maddox was named to Freshman All-America teams by Baseball America, Lou?isville Slugger, NCBWA and Yahoo! Sports, earned second-team All-SEC recognition and was chosen to the league's All-Freshman Team. He started 63 games in four different spots - third base (29), designated hitter (19), first base (14) and catcher (1). Maddox hit .333 and held the top spot in RBI (72), multi-RBI games (21), homers (17), hit-by-pitches (eight) and sacrifice flies (five). He scored 48 runs, poked 16 doubles and 37 of his 72 RBI came with two out. In league play, Maddox batted .316 with 33 RBI, 23 runs and 11 round-trippers.

Chosen to the third team by the NCBWA, Panteliodis led Florida in an assortment of categories last season: innings pitched (100.0), strikeouts (82), victories (11) and lowest batting average against by a starting pitcher (.234). Over 18 appearances, the left-hander was 11-3 with a 3.51 earned run average. His total of 11 victories was the most by a Gator since Justin Hoyman went 11-2 in 2004 and he was second on the squad with 16 starts behind Hudson Randall (Atlanta, Ga.) (17). Panteliodis went 4-2 with a 3.92 ERA in 10 SEC starts and was named to the Primetime Performer Weekly Honor Roll produced by CollegeBaseball360.com for the third time during the season after his outstanding effort against Miami (Fla.) in the opener of the best-of-three NCAA Gainesville Super Regional. The southpaw went the distance for his first career complete game and established a personal best with 12 strikeouts as the Gators posted a 7-2 triumph. He retired the final 14 Hurricane hitters of the contest and yielded three hits to register UF's first complete game since Stephen Locke accomplished the feat against Alabama on May 10, 2008.

A third-team honoree, Tucker earned second-team All-SEC honors last spring and was a member of the league's All-Defensive Team. He started 50 games at first base, seven in right field and six at designated hitter and hit .331 with 50 runs, 49 RBI, 43 walks, 17 doubles, 11 homers and eight stolen bases. Against conference competition, Tucker had a .312 average with 21 RBI, 21 walks, 20 runs, nine doubles and six HR. The 2009 SEC Co-Freshman of the Year picked up All-Tourney recognition at the Gainesville Regional after batting .400 (6-for-15) with four RBI and two runs and was UF's top hitter as a position player at the SEC Tourney with a .313 (5-for-13) clip.

Head coach Kevin O'Sullivan's squad captured the 2010 SEC title, its 11th league crown in school history, with a program-best 22-8 league mark and claimed nine of the 10 league series. In addition, the Gators won the SEC Eastern Division title for the second-straight year, their first time earning back-to-back divisional flags since the squad collected three in a row from 1996-98. UF then advanced to the NCAA College World Series in Omaha, Neb., for the first time in five years after sweeping the Regional and Super Regional rounds on its own turf and finished with an overall mark of 47-17. The Gators will open the season on Feb. 18 with a three-game series against USF at McKethan Stadium.

2011 Preseason NCBWA All-America Team (2010 Stats)

First Team
Pos. Name, School	Cl.	BA	G	AB	R	H	2B-3B-HR	RBI
C – Peter O'Brien, Bethune-Cookman	Jr.	.384	57	203	51	78	13-0-20	56
1B – Jordan Ribera, Fresno State	Sr.	.343	63	251	65	86	20-2-27	69
2B – Zack MacPhee, Arizona State	Jr.	.389	57	229	67	89	8-14-9	64
3B - Anthony Rendon, Rice	So.	.394	63	226	83	89	12-1-26	85
SS – Adam Bryant, Troy	Sr.	.356	61	250	70	89	16-6-23	65
OF – Alex Dickerson, Indiana	So.	.419	55	236	62	99	19-0-24	75
OF – Jeremy Baltz, St. John's	So.	.396	63	240	64	95	16-1-24	85
OF – Jackie Bradley, Jr., So. Carolina	Jr.	.368	67	242	56	89	12-1-13	60
DH – C.J. Cron, Utah	Jr.	.431	49	197	55	85	16-0-20	81
UT – Mike McGee, Florida State	Sr.	.328	68	250	61	82	15-1-17	73
Pitching: 4-1 record, 2.96 ERA, 20 G, 1 GS, 0 CG, 13 SV, 27 IP, 18 BB, 33 SO

Pitchers
Name, School	Cl.	ERA	W-L	G	IP	BB	SO	SV
SP – Anthony Meo, Coastal Carolina	Jr.	2.61	13-3	18	96.0	34	94	0
SP – Danny Hultzen, Virginia	So.	2.78	11-1	16	106.2	24	122	0
SP – Cole Green, Texas	Jr.	2.74	11-2	17	111.2	27	75	0
SP – Matt Purke, TCU	So.	3.02	16-0	20	116.1	42	142	0
SP – Gerrit Cole, UCLA	Jr.	3.37	11-4	19	123.2	52	153	0
SP – Noe Ramirez, Cal State Fullerton	Sr.	2.54	12-1	16	106.0	19	119	0
RP – John Stilson, Texas A&M	So.	0.80	9-1	33	79.0	23	114	10
RP – Collin Cargill, Southern Miss	Sr.	1.75	4-2	27	46.0	11	36	9
RP – Chris Dennis, Portland	Jr.	1.88	5-1	30	43.0	11	51	14

Second Team

C – Jeff Bandy, Jr., Arizona

1B – Paul Hoilman, Jr., East Tennessee State

2B – Ryan Wright, Jr., Louisville

3B – Garrett Buechele, Jr., Oklahoma

SS – B.A. Vollmuth, Jr., Southern Miss

OF – Brian Barnett, Sr., Nevada

OF – Brandon Meredith, Jr., San Diego State

OF – Jeff Schaus, Sr., Clemson

DH – Austin Maddox, So., FLORIDA

UT – Andy Mee, Jr., Florida Atlantic

Pitchers

SP – Taylor Jungmann, Jr., Texas

SP – Seth Maness, Sr., East Carolina

SP – Steven Maxwell, Sr., TCU

SP – Sonny Gray, Jr., Vanderbilt

SP – Tyler Anderson, Jr., Oregon

RP – Trever Vermeulen, Sr., South Dakota State

RP – Matt Price, So., South Carolina

RP – Kevin McKague, Sr., Army

Third Team (Ties in Voting)

C – Mac Doyle, Jr., Wofford

1B – Mike Nemeth, Sr., Connecticut

1B – Preston Tucker, Jr., FLORIDA

2B – Kevin Tokarski, Jr., Illinois State

3B – Jason Esposito, Jr., Vanderbilt

3B – Jacob Tanis, Jr., Mercer

SS – Garrett Wittels, Jr., FIU

OF – Nick Martini, Jr., Kansas State

OF – Jason Coats, Jr., TCU

OF – Taylor Dugas, Jr., Alabama

OF – George Springer, Jr., Connecticut

DH – Victor Gomez, Sr., Marshall

DH – Chad Oberacker, Sr., Tennessee Tech

UT – Nick Ramirez, So., Cal State Fullerton

Pitchers

SP – Kyle Winkler, So., TCU

SP – Drew Smyly, Jr., Arkansas

SP – Tim Kelley, Sr., Wichita State

SP – Todd McInnis, Sr., Southern Miss

SP – Nick Trapeano, Jr., Stony Brook

SP – Alex Panteliodis, Jr., FLORIDA

RP – James Allen, Jr., Kansas State

RP – Brian Hamilton, Sr., Charlotte

RP – Lex Rutledge, So., Samford

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Three Gator Baseball Players Earn Preseason All-American Honors From NCBWA

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