College Baseball Daily continues our countdown to the start of the 2014 college baseball season by checking in on the Top 100 Players in the country. We will be adding players day-by-day until we get to number one!
Number 9 on the countdown is Evansville’s Kyle Freeland. The 6’3 Denver, Colorado native broke out as a key player to watch in 2013 after a fantastic summer playing in the Alaska Baseball League.
The left-handed pitcher was a 35th-round draft pick by the Phillies out of high school. As a freshman, Freeland was a regular in the Purple Aces rotation, making 14 starts on the season including two complete games. Freeland’s most impressive start of the year came against Missouri State as he threw a complete game one-hitter with eleven strikeouts. Freeland, who has excellent control, also held a team-best walk/strikeout ratio (22/70) during the 2012 season.
Perhaps even more impressive than his freshman campaign is Freeland’s stellar summer in Alaska. Freeland was named to the 2012 Alaska Baseball League All League First Team as he earned five wins in six games started, posting an ERA of just .71 on the summer. As evident this summer, Freeland’s fastball sits consistently in the high 80/low 90 range and his four main pitches are his fastball, slider, changeup and curveball. He has solid control of all four pitches and finds the strike zone often.
In 2013, he made 14 starts on the mound tossing three complete games and finishing the year with a 4-8 record and 4.34 ERA. He ranked second on the squad with 84 strikeouts and 93.1 innings of work. He showed excellent control allowing just 26 walks.
Freeland pitched in the Cape Cod Baseball League with the Hyannis Harbor Hawks as he made 11 appearances including seven starts while going 3-3 with a 1.88 ERA in 48 innings pitched.
You can check out the rest of our top 100 by clicking here.
