College Baseball Daily 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 55 with South Florida senior RHP Randy Fontanez. The Oviedo, FL native attended Oviedo High School where he won three letters as a two-way player. As a senior, he was a first team all-county shortstop while recording a 1.11 ERA with 81 strikeouts in 75.2 innings. He was also named second team All-Conference pitcher in his sophomore, junior, and senior seasons.
In his freshman in 2008, he appeared in 13 games (all starts) as he went 5-3 with a 3.84 ERA in 81.1 innings of work. He struck out 58 batters while walking 27 batters.
Randy continued his strong freshman season in 2009 with a 7-3 record and an ERA of 3.09 in 99 innings. He was able to hold opponents to a .250 batting average against while striking out 57 batters and walking 24. He showed durability on the mound as he tossed six complete games in his 13 starts.
The Big East Conference projected him as the preseason pitcher of the year in 2010. He failed to live up to the lofty expectations but still had a solid season with a 3.59 ERA but was not able to get the decisions in his outing as his record slipped to 5-7 in 15 starts. Fontanez did improve on his strikeout totals as he had 105 while only walking 28. He was able to toss a no-hitter against Notre Dame on March 26th which led to him being named College Baseball Daily’s Player of the Week for March 30th. (Link). He was also able to toss a complete game shutout win against Villanova on April 23rd. At the end of the year, he was named to the All-Big East Second Team. He was drafted in the 23rd round of the 2010 MLB Draft by the Cincinnati Reds. He went to the Cape Cod Baseball League to help improve his negotitating power and was adequate with teh Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox. He finished the season with a 2-0 record with a 2.95 ERA in seven games (six starts) while striking out 25 batters and walking 12. After negotiating with the Reds, he decided to come back to South Florida to finish off his collegiate career.
You can check out the rest of our Top 100 by clicking here.
