UF Baseball's Bryson Smith Signs Professional Contract
Friday, July 22, 2011 | Baseball
Outfielder Bryson Smith (Watkinsville, Ga.), a member of the 2011 Gator baseball team, came to terms with the Cincinnati Reds on Friday. He becomes the sixth of the school-record 11 players from head coach Kevin O'Sullivan's club drafted in June to sign a professional contract. Selected by the Reds in the 34th round with the 1,045th selection, Smith has been assigned to the team's rookie affiliate in the Arizona League.
In helping the Gators to a runner-up finish at the 2011 NCAA College World Series, Smith batted a team-leading. 439 (29-for-66) in 16 postseason contests. He was named to the CWS All-Tournament squad after hitting .368 (7-for-19) in five outings at TD Ameritrade Park Omaha and was an SEC All-Tournament Team selection after going 9-for-22 (.409) over the five games in Hoover, Ala., with three RBI, a pair of doubles and two runs as the Orange and Blue claimed the championship for the first time since 1991. Florida's starting center fielder was 7-for-14 (.500) with three doubles in the Gainesville Super Regional triumph over Mississippi State and had a .545 (6-for-11) clip as the Gators swept the Gainesville Regional for the third-straight year.
In 51 games this spring, including 46 starts, Smith had a .328 batting average with 40 runs, 22 RBI, a team-high 16 hit-by-pitches, 14 doubles, six stolen bases and two homers. He concluded his collegiate career on a personal-best 15-game hitting streak in which he was 29-for-62 (.468) with 12 runs, eight RBI, seven doubles and seven walks. As a junior at UF in 2010, he started 23 games at third base, four as the designated hit?ter and four in right field and batted .255 with 22 RBI, 17 runs and three homers in 42 games.
Competing at Young Harris College in 2009 under head coach Rick Robinson, Smith was the American Baseball Coaches Association's Division I Player of the Year in the National Junior College Athletic Association. He was unanimously selected as the Georgia Junior College Athletic Association/Region 17 Player of the Year and was also named a first-team Division I All-American. He established a school record with a .467 batting average, which also ranked first in the East Central District, tied current Baltimore Orioles' slugger Nick Markakis' school record with 21 home runs and now ranks second in YHC school history with 99 hits and 90 RBI. By leading the East Central District, 20 teams combined from Georgia and Tennessee, in batting average, Smith earned a Rawlings Big Stick Award. He ranked second in Division I in RBI, third in home runs and 13th in on-base percentage (.551) that year.
Smith had previously been picked in the 30th round of the 2009 MLB Draft by the Cleveland Indians. During his two-year career at Florida, he started 77 of the 93 games he played in and boasted a career average of .300. Smith scored 57 runs, totaled 44 RBI, drew 30 walks, collected 16 doubles and was 13-for-21 on stolen-base opportunities.
