Earning a spot on USA Baseball’s Collegiate National Team is an incredible achievement on its own, but sharing the experience with your school teammates and roommates makes it that much better. As they prepare to compete in the gold medal game of the inaugural World Collegiate Baseball Championship (WCBC) against Japan on Wednesday, July 15, Florida Gators pitchers Jackson Barberi, Aidan King, and Joshua Whritenour have traded in the orange and blue for the red, white, and blue.
“It's awesome. This alone, just being able to represent the country, is a great experience,” Barberi said. “Being able to do it with two of my teammates, two of my roommates, two of my close friends, it just furthers that brotherhood, and it means a lot.”
The three right-handers earned their invites to Training Camp after posting standout seasons for the Gators and continued this momentum during camp, posting a combined 0.82 ERA across 11.0 innings of work.
King was named SEC Pitcher of the Year and earned first-team all-conference honors, in addition to a slew of national recognitions including being named an NCBWA First Team All-American and Second Team All-American (ABCA, Baseball America, Perfect Game). These recognitions come after King, the Gators’ Friday night starter, concluded the season with a 3.21 ERA after making all 16 of his scheduled starts. He struck out 92 batters across 87.0 innings of work and allowed just four home runs on the year.
Barberi put together a stellar campaign out of the bullpen as the Gators ace reliever, throwing for 37.1 innings in 19 appearances. He made 11 scoreless appearances on the mound and held batters to a .156 batting average against him, boasting 13.3 strikeouts per nine innings.
After redshirting his freshman year due to Tommy John surgery, Whritenour served as the Gators primary closer this season, tossing 36.2 innings across 25 appearances and recording seven saves.
“All the hard work and the hours that I put into my craft [after] coming back from surgery, it was hard at times, but I definitely soaked it all in my first year,” Whritenour said.
“Being able to play and compete this past year with my team, it definitely meant a lot. And then getting awarded to come here, it's awesome.”
Just 56 players are invited to the USA Baseball National Training Complex in Cary, North Carolina, to spend 11 days learning from some of the best coaches in the game and competing for a spot on the 28-man roster. The days of training can be long and grueling in the North Carolina sun, but seeing your name on the roster is a feeling like no other.
“The [coaches] just said congratulations and it just hit me in that moment. It means a lot not only to play with my teammates, but also to play for my country,” Whritenour said.
“It's something I can't put into words.”
After final roster decisions, Florida leads all universities with three players making the cut and heading to Taichung City, Taiwan to represent the U.S. and compete for a gold medal.
“You're not only playing for your school and yourself, you're playing for something much bigger than yourself,” King said. “You're playing for the whole country and representing it.”
Last year, King attended Training Camp with fellow Gators pitcher Liam Peterson, but didn’t make the final roster. He said the invite was unexpected and a little overwhelming, but he was excited regardless. With this previous experience under his belt, he told Whritenour and Barberi ahead of the week to just play their game the way they know how.
“It's a huge accomplishment to make it here, so obviously you're doing something right,” King said. “Just keep flowing with that and don't put any extra pressure on yourself.”
Though pressure and high-level competition is something the trio is used to as they compete in collegiate baseball’s toughest conference, the Southeastern Conference (SEC). The conference is overflowing with talent, having claimed the last seven NCAA titles and produced the last six Golden Spikes Award winners. As they prepare to face roaring home crowds rooting against them, they know that the SEC landscape has prepared them for the challenging environment.
“It's definitely put me in the best position,” Barberi said. “It's going to be very different competing over there, but I couldn't be more ready for it [after] playing in the SEC, the highest competition there is in college baseball.”
In addition to competing against elite competition with the hopes of bringing home a gold medal, the pitching trio also looks forward to experiencing the culture on the other side of the world.
“This [is] my first time overseas in a different country, so [I’m looking forward to] just seeing what it's like over there and trying new things,” King said. “And obviously bringing home the gold medal.”
At USA Baseball, upholding the “Gold Medal Standard” doesn’t just mean bringing home the hardware, it means being a great teammate and person off the field. For Barberi, this means that everyone on the team is contributing toward the common goal and isn’t motivated by a personal agenda. For King, it’s recognizing and taking advantage of an opportunity not many people have and using it to show the talent of the United States to the rest of the world.
But for all three players, it’s representing themselves, the University of Florida, and USA Baseball in the best way they can.
