The CBB continues our countdown to the start of the 2011 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 countdown today at number 81 with St. John’s junior shortstop Joe Panik. He is from Hopewell Junction, New York and attended John Jay High School. He was a four year letterwinner with the Patriots as he was a two-time team captain, two-time all-state selection, and two-time all-section honoree. As a senior he was named sectional, league and county player of the year while leading the team to a league championship.
As a freshman in 2009, Panik appeared in 50 games (49 starts) as he hit .332 with 11 doubles, four triples, five home runs and 47 RBI while having a team high 29 walks. He was named a second team Freshman All-American by the NCBWA.
Panik continued his strong college career as a sophomore in 2010 as he finished second on the team with a .374 average while hitting ten homers and driving in 53 runs. He ended up finishing second on the team in slugging percentage (.621) and on-base percentage (.477) behind NCBWA Freshman of the Year Jeremy Baltz. He did struggle on defense as he made 15 errors for a fielding percentage 
of .949.
He spent the summer of 2010 in the Cape Cod Baseball League with the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox where he batted .276 with eight doubles, two home runs and 19 RBI in 42 regular season games. Panik also drew a team-best 20 walks, led the team with a .386 on-base percentage and was a perfect 11-for-11 in stolen base attempts. He was named a CCBL All-Star as he went 1-2 in the game. (Live Blog|Recap)
You can check out the rest of our Top 100 by clicking here.
