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Gator Baseball Lands No. 5 Ranked Class MAGAZINE COVERAGE

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By Cody Jones Yearbook and a full year of
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Posted Sep 21, 2010
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The Florida baseball recruiting class isn’t loaded

with multiple elite prospects like last year, but head
coach Kevin O’Sullivan is bringing his third-straight
top five recruiting class to Gainesville. Collegiate
Baseball released their rankings Tuesday and
placed the Gators freshmen class as the fifth best in
Karsten Whitson the country.

The Gators struck gold when Karsten Whitson decided to come to college. The San
Diego Padres selected him with the 9th overall pick in the 2010 MLB Draft, and they
negotiated until the midnight of August 16th deadline. A deal wasn’t reached, with
Whitson reportedly turning down $2.1 million.

He provides a future top of the rotation arm. The right-hander sits in the mid-90s with
his fastball and has touched 96 mph. His slider was ranked by many as the top high
school slider in the country last year. The changeup is a work in progress, but
O’Sullivan, who also serves as Florida’s pitching coach, specializes in teaching the
pitch.

Left-hander Daniel Gibson, right-hander Keenan Kish, right-hander Jonathan Crawford

and right-hander Frank Dejiulio will add depth to a pitching staff that already has
multiple capable arms.

Third baseman Zack Powers has the best chance to start of the players in this class. Free Email Newsletter
He played shortstop in high school, but his long, lanky frame projects as a future third
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baseman. Powers hit .411 as a senior at Armwood High School, including 11 extra
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base hits and three home runs in 73 at-bats. The expectation is for his 6-3, 190- emailed to you on a daily or weekly basis.
pound frame to fill out with more muscle, which will produce more power in his swing. Click here for a list of all Team Newsletters.

Florida fans shouldn’t be surprised if Powers is the opening day starter at third base.
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His performance in fall practice will go a long way towards locking up the starting job.
Infielders Jacob Tillotson, Tyler Palmer and walk-on Alex Freedman will provide depth.

The Florida recruiting class consists of only eight scholarship players. Add Topics to My HotList
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LSU was ranked as the top recruiting class in the country. They signed 19 players, 11 Click link to add to My HotList.
from the high school ranks. San Diego (17 players), Oregon (12 players) and UCLA
(nine players) round out the rest of the top five. Baseball > Florida
[View My HotList]
Defending national champion South Carolina came in seventh. Vanderbilt (10th),
Arkansas (14th), Kentucky (16th), Mississippi State (18th), Mississippi (21st),
Auburn (26th) and Alabama (37th) rounded out the SEC schools in the top 40.

Tennessee and Georgia were the only SEC schools that didn’t make it.

Florida State ranked 17th and Miami finished 23rd. Central Florida was listed as 20th.

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