University
of Florida sophomore right-hander Jonathon Crawford (Okeechobee, Fla.) has
been selected to play for the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team, the
organization announced Wednesday.
Crawford
will be part of the 22-man Team USA squad that will report this week to its
training complex in Cary, N.C. The team’s season begins Monday, June 25, and
lasts a month, with trips to Cuba and The Netherlands highlighting the 2012
schedule.
After pitching just 3.2 innings as a freshman, Crawford made 19
appearances and 14 starts during his sophomore campaign as the Gators reached
the NCAA College World Series for the third-straight year. The righty had a 6-2
mark with a 3.13 earned run average and tied for second on the squad with 73
strikeouts in 77.2 innings.
In the opening round of the NCAA Gainesville Regional on June 1,
Crawford became
the first Gator hurler to register a complete-game no-hitter since John
Burke accomplished the feat in a 2-0 shutout of Furman on May 23, 1991,
that was the club’s opener in the NCAA East Regional held at McKethan Stadium.
Florida’s last combined no-hitter had occurred on March 19, 1993, when the duo
of Doug Brennan (7.0) and Chris Nelson (2.0) defeated Pace, 16-0.
Crawford,
whose previous career-high stint was six innings against LSU on April 6, went
the distance on 98 pitches (70 of them strikes) and faced the minimum of 27
batters en route to the 4-0 shutout of the Wildcats. He became just the seventh pitcher to throw a no-hitter in the NCAA
Championship and was the first since Burke.
Crawford defeated Auburn in UF’s SEC Tournament opener in Hoover,
Ala., establishing a career high with nine strikeouts over 5.2 innings, and
claimed the series opener at Tennessee on April 13. He fired six scoreless
frames to help the Gators even the series with seventh-ranked LSU and also
collected victories over Vanderbilt (5.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 6 K) and No. 19 UCF (5.0
IP, 2 H, 0 R, 4 K).
Crawford
becomes the fourth Gator during head coach Kevin O’Sullivan’s tenure to
represent Team USA, joining Matt den Dekker (2008), Nolan Fontana
(2010 & 2011) and Brian Johnson (2010 & 2011).
