Record Five Gators Earn Freshman All-America Honors From Baseball America
Sunday, July 11, 2010 | Baseball
The quintet of Gator shortstop Nolan Fontana (Winter Garden, Fla.), left-hander/designated hitter Brian Johnson (Cocoa Beach, Fla.), third baseman Austin Maddox (Jacksonville, Fla.), right-hander Hudson Randall (Atlanta, Ga.) and catcher Mike Zunino (Cape Coral, Fla.) was recently named as Freshman All-Americans by Baseball America.
Integral parts of head coach Kevin O'Sullivan's recruiting class that was ranked No. 1 in Baseball America's national rankings last fall, Florida led all schools and established a record for Freshman All-Americans by the publication, as the old mark of three was set in 1992.
In helping the Gators (47-17) to their first Southeastern Conference 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 later became the first player in school history to be named to the Rawlings NCAA Division I Gold Glove Team. Fontana was the lone freshman selected to the nine-player positional squad after committing just four errors in 279 chances for a .986 fielding percentage. 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.
Named as a Freshman All-American by both Louisville Slugger and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA), Johnson earned spots on the SEC's All-Freshman Team as a starting pitcher and designated hitter. In 16 appearances on the mound, with 14 starts, the southpaw was 6-4 with a 4.03 earned run average and recorded 51 strikeouts in 73.2 innings. Johnson served as the Gators' DH in 27 games and batted .405 (34-for-84) with 21 RBI, 13 runs, nine walks, five doubles, four homers and two grand slams. He was tabbed as the Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA Gainesville Regional after going 5-for-8 (.625) at the plate and twirling seven shutout innings in the championship game. Johnson batted .500 (14-for-28) in eight postseason games and was 9-for-19 (.474) during the NCAA Tourney.
The SEC's Freshman of the Year, Maddox was named a third-team All-American by the NCBWA. He was the first rookie from Florida to earn All-America recognition since Brad Wilkerson accomplished the feat in 1996 and was named to Freshman All-America teams by Lou?isville Slugger and the NCBWA. Maddox also earned second-team All-SEC recognition and was named to the league's All-Freshman Team. The versatile slugger started 63 games in four different spots - third base (29), designated hitter (19), first base (14) and catcher (1). He hit .333 and held the squad's top spot in RBI (72), multi-RBI games (21), homers (17), hit-by-pitches (eight) and sacrifice flies (five). Maddox scored 48 runs and poked 16 doubles and 37 of his 72 RBI came with two out. He was chosen as the SEC Freshman of the Week on April 19 after leading the Gators to their first series triumph at Kentucky since 2004. Maddox batted .538 (7-for-13) over the three games, homered in each outing and boasted a slugging percentage of 1.462. He paced the squad in RBI (five) and runs (five) and six of his seven hits on the weekend went for extra-bases, as he had three dingers and three doubles.
Randall was named to the NCBWA and Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American teams and was a member of the SEC's All-Freshman squad. He led the Gators with 17 starts and turned in an 8-4 mark with a 3.24 ERA in 20 appearances covering 97.1 innings. The righty finished second on the club with 69 strikeouts, trailing sophomore Alex Panteliodis (Tampa, Fla.) (82). The rookie led the SEC with a 2.63 ERA in conference games and was chosen Freshman of the Week twice, March 1 and April 12. In 10 league starts, Randall was 4-2 and posted victories over Tennessee, No. 4 Arkansas, No. 9 LSU and Alabama. In game two of the Super Regional, he kept Miami (Fla.) scoreless into the seventh inning and allowed three hits and two runs over 6.2 innings. In his previous outing, Randall had a career-high 10 strikeouts without issuing any walks over 7.1 innings to defeat Bethune-Cookman to begin the Gainesville Regional and was later chosen to the All-Tournament team.
Another member of the SEC's All-Freshman Team, Zunino started 51 games behind the plate for UF and one as the designated hitter and hit .267 with 41 RBI, 31 runs, nine homers and seven doubles in 55 games played. He was 8-for-11 on the basepaths, caught 14-of-38 runners attempting to steal and had three pickoffs. Zunino put together a 12-game hitting streak between April 21-May 15 in which he was 19-for-44 (.432) with 16 RBI and 11 runs. After being sidelined with a thumb injury, he returned to the lineup and earned All-Tournament accolades at the NCAA Gainesville Regional after batting .364 (4-for-11) with four runs and four RBI.
TCU left-hander Matt Purke was named as Baseball America's Freshman of the Year. The national leader with 16 wins, Purke was the staff ace for the Horned Frogs' first College World Series team. He was at his best in the postseason, beating Arizona in Regionals, Texas in Super Regionals, and both Florida State and UCLA in Omaha. An unsigned first-round pick out of high school, he met even the loftiest of expectations, becoming just the second Division I pitcher since 2004 to win 16 games, joining Arizona State's Mike Leake, who did it last year.
Purke and St. John's slugging outfielder Jeremy Baltz were the only two players to appear on Baseball America's All-America team and Freshman All-America team. The Southeastern Conference led all conferences with seven first-teamers and nine freshman All-Americans overall. The next closest was the Big 12, which landed four players on the first team and another on the second team. The teams were selected by the staff of Baseball America.
Pos. FIRST TEAM AVG OBP SLG AB R H HR RBI SB
C Mike Zunino, FLORIDA .267 .314 .472 176 31 47 9 41 8
1B Barrett Barnes, Texas Tech .341 .465 .641 217 71 74 14 53 12
2B Anthony Gomez, Vanderbilt .379 .418 .453 214 41 81 2 30 9
3B Kenny Diekroeger, Stanford .356 .391 .491 216 42 77 5 41 1
SS Nolan Fontana, FLORIDA .287 .437 .417 216 56 62 3 23 11
OF Jeremy Baltz, St. John's .396 .479 .771 240 64 95 24 85 6
OF Logan Vick, Baylor .329 .473 .553 228 59 75 10 27 11
OF Max White, Oklahoma .307 .360 .606 202 48 62 15 43 7
DH Austin Maddox, FLORIDA .333 .363 .587 264 48 88 17 72 0
UT Brian Johnson, FLORIDA .405 .458 .631 84 13 34 4 21 0
W L ERA G SV IP H BB SO BAA
SP Kurt Heyer, Arizona 7 4 3.26 17 0 102 97 29 109 .255
SP Matt Purke, TCU 16 0 3.02 18 0 116 91 34 142 .212
SP Hudson Randall, FLORIDA 8 4 3.24 20 0 97 102 21 69 .268
SP Michael Wacha, Texas A&M 9 2 2.90 25 1 106 86 22 97 .218
RP Matt Price, South Carolina 4 1 2.38 30 10 53 36 18 80 .188
UT Brian Johnson, FLORIDA 6 4 4.03 14 0 74 88 14 51 .293
Pos. SECOND TEAM AVG OBP SLG AB R H HR RBI SB
C Kevin Plawecki, Purdue .343 .384 .529 204 36 70 8 53 2
1B Christian Walker, South Carolina .324 .380 .518 222 35 72 9 51 2
2B Cory Spangenberg, VMI .370 .414 .596 235 62 87 11 49 24
3B Ryan Dalton, Texas-San Antonio .305 .364 .632 190 38 58 17 51 0
SS Deven Marrero, Arizona State .397 .442 .628 156 31 62 6 42 11
OF Beau Amaral, UCLA .353 .443 .459 218 45 77 4 31 9
OF Jabari Henry, FIU .315 .433 .606 165 47 52 12 51 6
OF Cohl Walla, Texas .316 .357 .491 228 41 72 8 40 14
DH Dan Gulbransen, Jacksonville .391 .498 .599 202 53 79 8 46 5
UT Marcus Stroman, Duke .265 .339 .386 166 26 44 2 20 11
W L ERA G SV IP H BB SO BAA
SP Dylan Floro, Cal State Fullerton 7 2 3.26 27 2 91 102 11 69 .281
SP Kyle Hansen, St. John's 8 3 3.71 18 0 95 77 38 85 .227
SP Justin Jones, California 10 6 4.22 18 0 98 102 29 73 .272
SP Corey Roberts, Charlotte 6 3 3.48 15 0 85 81 23 75 .250
RP Brett Huber, Ole Miss 2 0 2.54 29 12 46 30 19 54 .185
UT Marcus Stroman, Duke 6 4 5.31 17 3 58 57 25 64 .263
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