Hunter Barco named SEC Pitcher of the Week, National Player of Week
Florida Gators left-handed pitcher Hunter Barco was honored Monday as the SEC Pitcher of the Week, as well as being named one of Collegiate Baseball’s National Players of the Week.
This marks the first SEC Pitcher of the Week honor of Barco’s career. The unanimous preseason All-American threw a career-high 11 strikeouts Friday, the most by a Florida pitcher on opening day since at least 1999.
Making his first-career Friday night start against Liberty, Barco took a perfect game into the sixth inning en route to earning the win. After retiring the first-16 batters of the game in order, the third-year southpaw worked around a pair of sixth-inning baserunners to finish with 6.0 shutout innings pitched on one hit and one walk.
“I thought Hunter was special,” UF coach Kevin O’Sullivan said following Barco’s performance. “College baseball is different from professional baseball. There’s no spring training. You intrasquad, intrasquad, intrasquad, and all of a sudden, it’s February 18 and the lights are on. So, I thought he handled it awesome. Getting through the first inning is certainly probably the most important to kind of set the tone. He was awesome.”
Hunter Barco a top MLB Draft prospect
Barco is currently positioned as the No. 53-ranked prospect for the 2022 MLB Draft by MLB Pipeline.
He was named last season to the Newcomer All-SEC Team and Southeast-ABCA/Rawlings All-Region Second Team after leading the Gators with 10 wins in a team-high 16 starts (all weekend appearances).
Barco finished the year with a 4.01 ERA, .239 batting average against and 94 strikeouts in 83 innings pitched. As a freshman in 2020, Barco went 2-0 with a 1.40 ERA and 26 strikeouts across 19.1 frames.
Following Friday night’s start, Barco now owns a career 13-3 record with a 3.32 ERA, .218 BAA and 131 strikeouts in 108.1 innings pitched — translating to 10.9 strikeouts per nine innings.
After the losing its season-opening series to Liberty, Florida is off on Monday before traveling to Deland for a matchup with Stetson at 6:30 p.m. on ESPN+. The Gators then return home on Wednesday, hosting North Florida at 7 p.m. at Florida Ballpark.
