Early Life
Born in Corpus Christi, Texas, Freese was raised in the Greater St. Louis area, in Wildwood, Mo., and he grew up a fan of the St. Louis Cardinals. He graduated in 2001 from Lafayette High School in Wildwood, Missouri. Freese recorded a Lafayette-record .533 batting average and 23 home runs during his senior season. He was considered to be the best shortstop in the state.
As a senior in high school, Freese was offered a scholarship to play college baseball for the University of Missouri's baseball team, competing in the Big 12 Conference of the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Division I. Feeling burned out, Freese decided instead to quit the sport. He enrolled at the University of Missouri, where he studied computer science and pledged Sigma Alpha Epsilon.
During the summer after his freshman year, Freese worked for the Rockwood School District maintenance department. When he visited Lafayette High School towards the end of the summer, he realized how much he missed baseball. Freese asked Tony Dattoli, the coach at St. Louis Community College-Meramec, for a roster spot.
St. Louis Community College is a junior college, which participates in the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA). During his one season at St. Louis Community College, Freese hit .396 with 41 runs batted in (RBI) and 10 home runs and was named to the NJCAA All-America second team. Dattoli recommended Freese to Steve Kittrell, the head coach of the Jaguars baseball team at the University of South Alabama. At South Alabama, opposing teams respected his hitting ability; scouts told their pitchers: "Don't let Freese beat us." In 2005 as a junior, Freese hit .373, with a .443 on-base percentage (OBP), .525 slugging percentage (SLG), and 52 runs scored in 56 games. He was seventh in the Sun Belt Conference (SBC) in average and led the school one year after Adam Lind had done so. Freese was even better in 2006, hitting .414 with a .503 OBP and .661 SLG with 73 runs and 73 RBI in 60 games. He won the SBC batting title and also led the conference in RBI. He tied for ninth in Division I in RBI, was 12th in average and just missed the top 10 in runs scored. He made the All-Conference team at third base and was named SBC Player of the Year. He was named an American Baseball Coaches Association All-American as the top third baseman in NCAA Division I, ahead of Evan Longoria and Pedro Alvarez, among others. Kittrell considers Freese to be the best player he coached at South Alabama, where he also coached Lind, Luis Gonzalez and Juan Pierre.
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