Sophomore Austin Maddox (Jacksonville, Fla.), junior Alex Panteliodis (Tampa, Fla.) and junior Preston Tucker (Tampa, Fla.) were each named to the 2011 National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) Pro-Line Athletic Preseason All-America Team released on Wednesday.
A second-team selection to the organization’s 11th annual team, Maddox was the SEC’s 2010 Freshman of the Year and was named a third-team All-American by the NCBWA for his tremendous performance as a freshman. He was the first rookie from Florida to earn All-America recognition since Brad Wilkerson accomplished the feat in 1996. Maddox was named to Freshman All-America teams by Baseball America, Louisville Slugger, NCBWA and Yahoo! Sports, earned second-team All-SEC recognition and was chosen to the league’s All-Freshman Team. He started 63 games in four different spots - third base (29), designated hitter (19), first base (14) and catcher (1). Maddox hit .333 and held the top spot in RBI (72), multi-RBI games (21), homers (17), hit-by-pitches (eight) and sacrifice flies (five). He scored 48 runs, poked 16 doubles and 37 of his 72 RBI came with two out. In league play, Maddox batted .316 with 33 RBI, 23 runs and 11 round-trippers.
Chosen to the third team by the NCBWA, Panteliodis led Florida in an assortment of categories last season: innings pitched (100.0), strikeouts (82), victories (11) and lowest batting average against by a starting pitcher (.234). Over 18 appearances, the left-hander was 11-3 with a 3.51 earned run average. His total of 11 victories was the most by a Gator since Justin Hoyman went 11-2 in 2004 and he was second on the squad with 16 starts behind Hudson Randall (Atlanta, Ga.) (17). Panteliodis went 4-2 with a 3.92 ERA in 10 SEC starts and was named to the Primetime Performer Weekly Honor Roll produced by CollegeBaseball360.com for the third time during the season after his outstanding effort against Miami (Fla.) in the opener of the best-of-three NCAA Gainesville Super Regional. The southpaw went the distance for his first career complete game and established a personal best with 12 strikeouts as the Gators posted a 7-2 triumph. He retired the final 14 Hurricane hitters of the contest and yielded three hits to register UF’s first complete game since Stephen Locke accomplished the feat against Alabama on May 10, 2008.
A third-team honoree, Tucker earned second-team All-SEC honors last spring and was a member of the league’s All-Defensive Team. He started 50 games at first base, seven in right field and six at designated hitter and hit .331 with 50 runs, 49 RBI, 43 walks, 17 doubles, 11 homers and eight stolen bases. Against conference competition, Tucker had a .312 average with 21 RBI, 21 walks, 20 runs, nine doubles and six HR. The 2009 SEC Co-Freshman of the Year picked up All-Tourney recognition at the Gainesville Regional after batting .400 (6-for-15) with four RBI and two runs and was UF’s top hitter as a position player at the SEC Tourney with a .313 (5-for-13) clip.
Head coach Kevin O’Sullivan’s squad captured the 2010 SEC title, its 11th league crown in school history, with a program-best 22-8 league mark and claimed nine of the 10 league series. In addition, the Gators won the SEC Eastern Division title for the second-straight year, their first time earning back-to-back divisional flags since the squad collected three in a row from 1996-98. UF then advanced to the NCAA College World Series in Omaha, Neb., for the first time in five years after sweeping the Regional and Super Regional rounds on its own turf and finished with an overall mark of 47-17. The Gators will open the season on Feb. 18 with a three-game series against USF at McKethan Stadium.
