Baseball's 2009 Recruiting Class Ranked 10th Nationally by Collegiate Baseball

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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Virginia’s 2009 baseball recruiting class has been ranked 10th nationally by Collegiate Baseball, the newspaper announced Thursday. UVa’s class is tied for 10th with Stanford.

“I am very excited about this new group of players,” Virginia head coach Brian O’Connor said. “It is a very talented class with some players who will make an immediate impact in our program. This is a group of athletic position players and pitchers who possess the ability to compete right away. Above all, this class of young men is a great fit for The University of Virginia. Our assistant coaches, Kevin McMullan and Karl Kuhn, have once again brought another stellar Top-10 recruiting class to Charlottesville. Kevin and Karl deserve all the credit in bringing these young men into our program.”

UVa’s class consists of 10 freshmen and two junior-college transfers. Five of the 12 players were selected in the 2009 Major League Baseball Draft – freshmen Stephen Bruno (Audubon, N.J.), Reed Gragnani (Richmond, Va.), Branden Kline (Frederick, Md.) and Rob Amaro (Bensalem, Pa.) as well as Young Harris Junior College transfer Kenny Swab (Kernersville, N.C.).

The rest of the class is highly-regarded as well and consists of freshmen Chris Taylor (Virginia Beach, Va.), Colin Harrington (Johnstown, Pa.), Ryan Briggs (Omaha, Neb.), Ryan Levine (Hackensack, N.J.), Aaron Stull (Newport, N.C.) and Whit Mayberry (Alexandria, Va.) as well as transfer Cody Winiarski (Franksville, Wis./Madison Area Tech).

UVa’s class is ranked second best among ACC programs, behind only No. 9 Miami. Florida brought in the nation’s top incoming class according to Collegiate Baseball. A full story on the top recruits in each of the top 10 classes will be in the Oct. 2 edition of Collegiate Baseball.

In addition to the 12 newcomers, UVa returns 23 letterwinners, including its entire starting lineup, from the 2009 team, which reached the College World Series for the first time in program history and posted a school-record 49 wins.

Virginia is in the midst of fall practice and has two open practices remaining – Sept. 20 (6-9 p.m.) and Sept. 26 (8:30-11 a.m.). These practices are free of charge and open to the public. UVa begins its annual Orange and Blue World Series on Monday, Oct. 5 at Davenport Field. All seven games of the series are free of charge.

Collegiate Baseball 2009 Recruiting Rankings
1. Florida
2. Arizona State
3. LSU
4. UCF
5. Cal State Fullerton
6. Kentucky
7. TCU
8. Vanderbilt
9. Miami
10. Virginia
10. Stanford