Gator right-hander Karsten Whitson (Chipley, Fla.) was chosen as the National Freshman Pitcher of the Year by Perfect Game and was named to the organization’s Freshman All-American team on Thursday. He previously earned Freshman All-American recognition from Baseball America, Louisville Slugger and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA). North Carolina third baseman Colin Moran was honored as Perfect Game’s National Freshman Player of the Year.
Chosen to the SEC’s All-Freshman Team, Whitson held a permanent spot in the Gators’ weekend rotation and finished 8-1 with a 2.40 earned run average. He tied sophomore Hudson Randall (Atlanta, Ga.) for the top spot with 19 starts, led the club with 92 strikeouts in 97.1 innings and limited opponents to a .235 batting average.
In his NCAA Tourney debut on June 3, Whitson did not permit any runs or walks as Florida overpowered Manhattan, 17-3. He also made a pair of starts during the Orange and Blue’s runner-up performance at the 2011 NCAA College World Series. The righty earned a no-decision in Florida’s 3-1 victory over Vanderbilt in which he yielded four hits and one run over 4.2 innings, with five strikeouts and a walk. Whitson drew the starting assignment in game two of the CWS Championship Finals and was on the short end to South Carolina despite allowing one earned run on four hits over 4.2 innings.
Whitson collected SEC Freshman of the Week honors on April 25 after a seven-strikeout performance in a career-high 6.2 innings versus Alabama and was 4-0 with a 2.56 ERA in conference games. In 10 SEC starts, the righty posted victories over Tennessee, Alabama, Ole Miss and Kentucky.
2011 Perfect Game Freshman All-Americans
Pos. AVG OBP SLG AB R H HR RBI SB
C Jared Bales, Southern Miss .281 .408 .405 121 23 34 2 20 0
1B Dominic Ficociello, Arkansas .335 .364 .464 224 29 75 4 50 5
2B JaCoby Jones, LSU .338 .395 .467 195 36 66 4 32 12
SS Luke Tendler, North Carolina A&T .380 .404 .606 213 33 81 6 53 7
3B Colin Moran, North Carolina .335 .442 .540 248 46 83 9 71 2
OF Tony Kemp, Vanderbilt .329 .434 .417 252 58 83 0 34 17
OF Daniel Aldrich, College of Charleston .347 .399 .739 222 43 77 22 73 1
OF Kyle Wren, Georgia Tech .340 .412 .445 265 57 90 1 32 16
DH Erich Weiss, Texas .348 .483 .518 224 46 78 4 45 11
UT Marco Gonzales, Gonzaga .291 .403 .382 110 20 32 0 14 1
W L ERA G SV IP H BB SO BAA
SP Kent Emanuel, North Carolina 9 1 2.33 20 0 104 96 23 89 .246
SP Austin Kubitza, Rice 6 5 2.34 15 0 100 95 24 102 .251
SP Adam Plutko, UCLA 7 4 2.01 16 0 108 73 24 92 .193
SP Karsten Whitson, FLORIDA 8 1 2.40 19 0 97 84 28 92 .235
RP Corey Knebel, Texas 3 2 1.13 38 19 56 28 12 61 .151
RP Kyle Porter, California 6 0 1.89 25 2 57 49 12 57 .229
UT Marco Gonzales, Gonzaga 11 2 2.57 15 0 105 83 21 90 .221
