Florida baseball continues to bring in talent.
The Gators’ 2014 recruiting class ranked No. 3 in the country, according to Collegiate Baseball newspaper’s annual evaluation of NCAA Division I baseball classes which was released on Monday.
The evaluation placed nine Southeastern Conference teams’ recruiting classes in the top 40, while five (No. 1 LSU, No. 3 Florida, No. 14 Kentucky, No. 15 Ole Miss, No. 16 Arkansas) found themselves in the top 20.
This marks the sixth year that UF coach Kevin O’Sullivan has a recruiting class ranked in the top eight in the country and the fourth year that it ranked in the top five.
Seven of O’Sullivan’s 11 recruits — 10 freshmen and a junior-college transfer — were selected in the 2014 MLB Draft back in June.
"We have seven drafted players in school after having a school-record eight draftees come to Florida last year, so that has given us a strong foundation in back-to-back years," O’Sullivan said in a release. "This group complements our needs going forward."
Catcher JJ Schwarz, the brother of UF softball junior Taylor Schwarz, was the highest drafted player, being selected by the Milwaukee Brewers in the 17th round with the 506th pick.
JJ Schwarz finished his senior season at Palm Beach Gardens High with a .361 batting average, six home runs and 33 RBIs.
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Florida coach Kevin O’Sullivan lost five pitchers this offseason to the MLB and is now looking to sophomores Daniel Gibson, Jonathan Crawford and Keenan Kish to lead the Gators’ middle relief.
