Baseball's Austin Maddox Named SEC Freshman of the Week
Monday, April 19, 2010 | Baseball
University of Florida third baseman/designated hitter Austin Maddox (Jacksonville, Fla.) was chosen as the Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Week on Monday after leading the Gators to their first series triumph at Kentucky since 2004.
Maddox hit .538 (7-for-13) over the three games, homered in each outing and boasted a slugging percentage of 1.462. He also paced the squad in RBI (five) and runs (five) versus the Wildcats and six of his seven hits on the weekend went for extra-bases, as he had three dingers and three doubles.
The rookie slugger snapped a 6-6 tie in the seventh inning of the opener by clubbing a three-run shot and was 3-for-5 with two runs during UF's 10-8 victory. The next night, he provided the Gators with a 3-1 lead with a solo shot to open the fourth and was 3-for-5 with two doubles as Florida clinched the series by posting a 6-3 victory.
In the finale, he connected on his team-leading 12th homer in the eighth inning to extend his hitting streak to eight games. Maddox leads Florida in batting average (.369), RBI (42), multiple-hit games (17), doubles (13), multiple-RBI games (12) and slugging percentage (.698) and is the team leader in SEC play with a .369 clip, 21 RBI and eight round-trippers.
Maddox became the fourth member of head coach Kevin O'Sullivan's top-ranked recruiting class to be named the SEC's Freshman of the Week this season, joining right-hander Hudson Randall (Atlanta, Ga.) (March 1 and April 12), shortstop Nolan Fontana (Winter Garden, Fla.) (March 8) and left-hander/designated hitter Brian Johnson (Cocoa Beach, Fla.) (April 5).
No. 7 Florida (25-10/10-5 SEC) heads to Tampa for a meeting with USF (16-19/8-4 Big East) on Wednesday at 7 p.m. The Gators swept the Bulls in a season-opening series at McKethan Stadium by scores of 6-2, 9-1 and 7-6 in 10 innings.
UF will then return home for the first time since April 6 for crucial weekend series against No. 4 Arkansas (31-6/12-3 SEC), which leads the SEC by one game over No. 5 South Carolina (28-8/11-4 SEC) and No. 6 LSU (30-6/11-4 SEC) and two games over the Orange and Blue.
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