College Baseball Daily continues our countdown to the start of the 2012 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 77 with Buffalo junior catcher Tom Murphy. The West Monroe, New York native attended Central Square High School. He was a three year captain for coaches Kyle Brown and John Jefferies. As a senior, he batted .510 with eight home runs, eight doubles and three triples while being named First-Team All-CNY and CNY Athlete of the Year.
As a freshman in 2010, he started 36 games and appearing in six other games. He finished the season with a .313 average while hitting four homers and driving in 25 runs.
Murphy had a breakout season as a sophomore leading the Bulls in hitting with a .384 batting average while hitting ten homers and driving in 44 runs. He spent the summer mostly in the NECBL with the Holyoke Blue Sox hitting .285 with 10 homers and 28 RBI. He also played in the NECBL All-Star game against the USA Collegiate National Team. He ended up hitting a long homer off of LSU’s Kevin Gausman. (Video below) After the game, he was added to the USA Collegiate National Team roster. He played in four games (two starts) where he did not get a basehit in eight official at-bats.
Baseball America named him the best prospect in their annual 2011 Top Prospects Lists for Summer Leagues.
