10 College Baseball Highlights 2010

The top 10 college baseball highlights of 2010 made for a thrilling year for college baseball fans. With these memorable and exciting college baseball highlights, it’s hard to believe some of these athletes are still young amateurs.

1. First Place Finish:  In the bottom of the eighth inning in the College Baseball World Series in June 2010, South Carolina rallied for a run to tie favorite UCLA. South Carolina went on to won its first national championship 2-1 on right fielder Whit Merrifield’s RBI single in the eleventh inning. It was the first College World Series championship game to be decided in extra innings since 1970.
2. Second Place Finish:  Underdog UCLA finished second in the 2010 college baseball world series. After the game UCLA coach John Savage said the game was “as good as it gets” at the collegiate level.
3. Retirement of Rosenblatt Stadium: Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Nebraska, saw its last College Baseball World Series game in 2010. Rosenblatt had hosted the College World Series since 1950. The Series moves to a new $130 million stadium, TD Ameritrade Park, in 2011. The new stadium opens in April and seats an additional 900 fans.
4. Batting Crown: Justin Howard from New Mexico beat Jace Brinkerhoff of Utah Valley for the 2010 batting crown in one of the closest batting races ever.  Howard hit .45593 and Brinkerhoff hit .45559.
5. RBI Record: Chris Benson of Utah Valley knocked in 89 runs to win the RBI title for the 2010 season. Benson's record is almost unbelievable when you consider that he played fewer than half the games that a major leaguer would play.
6. Home Run Record: Fresno State’s Jordon Ribera grabbed the national home run crown by clobbering 27 home runs in the 2010 season. Three players tied for second place with 26 homers:  A.J. Kirby-Jones (Tennessee Tech), Dan Paolini  (Siena), and Anthony Rendon (Rice).
7. Wins: Pitcher Matt Purke of Texas Christian University had sixteen wins—three more than his closest competitor—and zero losses for the season.
8. ERA Record: One of college baseball’s greatest distinctions is the ERA record. Texas A&M’s John Stilson won the award for the pitcher with the best ERA with a 0.80. To qualify, pitchers had to have a minimum of 50 innings pitched.
9. Strikeouts: Trevor Bauer of UCLA struck out an amazing 165 batters to win the K-Crown. His closest competitor finished with ten fewer strikeouts.
10. Saves: A great college baseball closer comes to the game and puts out the fire. Kevin Arico of Virginia did just that eighteen times to win the national Fireman’s Award for the most saves in 2010.