The CBB continues our countdown for the 2010 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 list today with number 22 in our countdown with Josh Spence from Arizona State. He is the only player on the list from outside of North America as he hails from Victoria, Australia and graduated from St. Joseph’s College in Newtown, Victoria, Australia.
Josh transitioned to the United States by playing two seasons at Central Arizona College in Coolidge Arizona. As a freshman in 2007, he went 13-3 with two saves and a 1.10 ERA while leading the team to the Conference and Region title. He even had a better sophomore season with a 14-4 record with seven saves and a 1.69 ERA including 16 complete games, with eight shutouts. He picked up several awards including two-time winner of the Arizona Community College Athletic Conference player of the year award, a two-time All-American, all-district, all-region and all-conference honoree as well as a two-time JUCO Rawlings Gold Glove recipient.
Spence transferred for his junior season to Arizona State to play under Pat Murphy. He didn’t disappoint as he appeared in 18 games with a 10-1 record including a
save while having an ERA of 2.37. He ended up striking out 125 batters while only walking 39 batters. Spence battled injuries all year as he missed 10 days in March after he was struck in the face by a line drive, then missed a month after injuring a finger on his pitching hand. He picked up several awards including being the National Newcomer of the Year by Rivals.com, Third Team All-American honors from both Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball, First Team All-Pac-10 selection, and Second Team All-West Region choice by the ABCA.
You can check out the rest of our Top 100 by clicking here.
