Four Gators Named To Yahoo! Sports Freshman All-America Team
Sunday, July 11, 2010 | Baseball
Florida shortstop Nolan Fontana (Winter Garden, Fla.), left-hander/designated hitter Brian Johnson (Cocoa Beach, Fla.), third baseman Austin Maddox (Jacksonville, Fla.) and right-hander Hudson Randall (Atlanta, Ga.) were recently chosen as Freshman All-Americans by Yahoo! Sports. The Gators' four honorees were the most in the country.
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 Baseball America and 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 Baseball America, 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 Baseball America, 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 Baseball America, Louisville Slugger and the NCBWA 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.
In terms of individual player awards from Yahoo! Sports, TCU left-hander Matt Purke was the National Freshman Pitcher of the Year and St. John's outfielder Jeremy Baltz was the National Freshman Player of the Year.
2010 Yahoo! Sports Freshman All-America Team
C Kevin Plawecki, Purdue
1B Barrett Barnes, Texas Tech
2B Anthony Gomez, Vanderbilt
SS Nolan Fontana, FLORIDA
3B Kenny Diekroeger, Stanford
OF Beau Amaral, UCLA
OF Jeremy Baltz, St. John's
OF Logan Vick, Baylor
DH Austin Maddox, FLORIDA
UT Brian Johnson, FLORIDA
SP Kurt Heyer, Arizona
SP Matt Purke, TCU
SP Hudson Randall, FLORIDA
SP Michael Wacha, Texas A&M
RP Matt Price, South Carolina
RP Brady Rodgers, Arizona State
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