Baseball's Nolan Fontana Chosen To Rawlings Gold Glove Team
Wednesday, June 30, 2010 | Baseball
Florida shortstop Nolan Fontana (Winter Garden, Fla.) became the first player in school history to be named to the Rawlings NCAA Division I Gold Glove Team announced on Wednesday. He was the lone freshman selected to the nine-player positional squad after committing just four errors in 279 chances for a .986 fielding percentage.
In helping the Gators (47-17) to their first SEC crown since 2005 and first appearance at the NCAA College World Series in five years, Fontana earned Freshman All-America recognition from Collegiate Baseball, collected second-team All-SEC honors and was chosen to both the league's Defensive Team and All-Freshman squad. He started 63 games at shortstop and was fourth on the club with a .287 average with 56 runs, a team-high 53 walks, 23 RBI, 15 doubles and 11 stolen bases. In addition, Fontana was tabbed as the SEC Freshman of the Week twice, March 8 and May 17.
At the final College World Series held at Rosenblatt Stadium, he paced the Orange and Blue with a .500 (3-for-6) clip and had team highs in walks (four) and runs (three). The rookie was 2-for-4 and scored twice against Florida State and drew three walks and had a stolen base versus UCLA.
During the NCAA Gainesville Super Regional, Fontana reached on a two-base error to start the 10th inning of game two against Miami (Fla.) and scored the game-winning run on a double by classmate Austin Maddox (Jacksonville , Fla.). He also picked up All-Tourney recognition during the NCAA Gainesville Regional after batting .455 (5-for-11) with a team-best five walks, four runs and three RBI. Against Florida Atlantic in the title game, Fontana went 2-for-4 with two runs and a pair of walks. The previous night, he led off the meeting with Oregon State with a solo homer to right center to jump-start UF's 10-2 win over the Beavers. He delivered a two-run single against Bethune-Cookman and was 2-for-4 in the Gators' 7-3 victory to begin the NCAA Tournament.
Fontana will be heading to the 2010 USA Baseball Collegiate National Team Trials set for July 5-11 at the National Training Complex in Cary, N.C. He will be fighting for a spot on the final 22-man roster that will be selected on Sunday, July 11. The team will then tour across the United States, with the summer season culminating on July 30-Aug. 7 at the FISU World University Baseball Championships in Tokyo, Japan.
2010 Rawlings NCAA Division I Gold Glove Team
| Position | Player | Class | School |
| 1B | Jordan Ribera | Junior | Fresno State |
| 2B | Zach Grichor | Senior | South Alabama |
| 3B | Colin Rooney | Senior | Pepperdine |
| SS | Nolan Fontana | Freshman | FLORIDA |
| C | Yasmani Grandal | Junior | Miami (Fla.) |
| OF | Gary Brown | Junior | Cal State Fullerton |
| OF | Jarrett Parker | Junior | Virginia |
| OF | Ryan Strausborger | Senior | Indiana State |
| P | Sonny Gray | Sophomore | Vanderbilt |
--UF--
