Two Canes Named Louisville Slugger Preseason All-Americans
Dec. 20, 2011
2012 Louisville Slugger Preseason All-America Team 
Coral Gables, Fla. – University of Miami student-athletes Peter O’Brien and Eric Whaley have been selected to the 2012 Louisville Slugger Preseason All-America Baseball Team, as selected by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper on Tuesday afternoon. O’Brien was recognized to the second team, while Whaley was announced to the third team.
Catcher Peter O’Brien, who transferred into UMiami over the summer from Bethune-Cookman in Daytona Beach, Fla., was named to the second team after finishing his junior season at B-CU batting .304 with 14 home runs and 69 RBI, finishing among the tops in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) in the home run category. For the South Florida native, Tuesday’s honor serves as his sixth Preseason All-America team throughout his career. He was named to five Preseason All-America Teams prior to the 2011 campaign at B-CU, including Louisville Slugger, ESPN, National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA), Collegiate Baseball Lineup and Perfect Game USA.
For Eric Whaley, this is the first time he’s being honored to a Preseason All-America Team after finishing the 2011 season with a 2.70 ERA and a record of 7-5 as a starting pitcher for the Hurricanes. The junior right-hander started 16 contests a season ago while fanning a team second-best 82 batters across a team-high 93 1/3 innings on the mound. The Pompano Beach, Fla. native had the Atlantic Coast Conference’s (ACC) 11th-lowest average against (.233) and registered a team-best 3.72-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
Joining the two Hurricanes on the Preseason All-America Team from the ACC on the second team Virginia pitcher Branden Kline, along with Florida State’s Devon Travis and James Ramsey. North Carolina’s Colin Moran also made the second team.
On the third team was Georgia Tech pitcher Buck Farmer, joined by Virginia Tech outfielder Andrew Rash and a pair of North Carolina student-athletes in pitcher Kent Emanuel and Colin Moran.
The 2012 college baseball season gets under way Feb. 17, with all 12 ACC teams scheduled to be in action. Fourteen ACC teams have reached the College World Series since 2006, and six conference schools are nationally ranked entering this season.
The Hurricanes will host Rutgers on Friday, Feb. 17 at 7 p.m. inside Alex Rodriguez Park.
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