Top 100 Countdown: Number 2 Bryce Brentz (Middle Tennessee State)

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The CBB continues our countdown for the 2010 College Baseball season by checking in on the Top 100 Players in the country. We will be providing one player per day until we reach number 1.

We continue the list today with number 2 in our countdown with junior outfielder/RHP Bryce Brentz from Middle Tennessee State. He is from Knoxville, Tennessee and attended South Doyle High School. His high school career saw him bat .417 while hitting 11 home runs and driving in 67 runs. He was named a Preseason All-American by Baseball Factory and Team One in 2007. At the end of his senior season, he was named All-State and All-District. The Cleveland Indians selected him in the 30th round of the 2007 draft but could not come to terms with him.

Brentz made an immediate impact in the Middle Tennessee State Baseball team during his freshman season in 2008. He appeared in 55 games starting 51 serving as the DH during the second half of the season after suffering an injury. He also saw time on the mound as he went 1-0 record with a 2.20 ERA in 28.2 innings of work while striking out 23 batters with opponents hitting .178. He picked up several awards including being named Collegiate Baseball’s Louisville Slugger Freshman All-America, American Baseball Coaches Association Third Team All-America and National Collegiate Baseball Writer’s Association Freshman All-America while also being named Freshman of the Year by the Sun Belt Conference and Second Team All-Conference.

Bryce had a record breaking sophomore season at Middle Tennessee State which saw him break single season records in batting average (.465), home runs (28), hits (107), runs (79), total bases (214) and slugging percentage (.930) while appearing in every game. He appeared in 15 games on the mound where he went 5-3 with a 4.57 ERA while striking out 63 batters in 15 appearances. He was named the Sun Belt Conference Player of the year while also being a Consensus All-American (Louisville Slugger First Team All-America, ABCA First Team, First Team Pro-Line Athletic/NCBWA, Baseball America First Team, Rivals.com First Team, College Baseball Insider). He spent the summer of 2009 with the USA Collegiate National Team where he played in 23 games starting 17 of them. He had a .366 batting average while hitting two homers and driving in 18 runs. He also appeared in five games as a pitcher where he didn’t record a decision while having a 5.40 ERA. Keith Law of ESPN.com considered Brentz the best position player on the 2009 USA Collegiate National Team.

You can check out a Yahoo Sports feature article by Kendall Rogers on Brentz by clicking here.

You can check out the rest of our Top 100 by clicking here.