Brad Wilkerson - College Career

College Career

A line drive hitter and versatile defensive player, Wilkerson received an athletic scholarship to attend the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where he played for coach Andy Lopez's Florida Gators baseball team from 1996 to 1998. A three-time first-team All-American, Wilkerson led the Gators to the College World Series in 1996 and 1998 with both his hitting and pitching. In the 1996 College World Series, he hit a dramatic grand slam to defeat the rival Florida State Seminoles.

As a junior in 1998, he became the first player in college history to hit 20 home runs, steal 20 bases, and win 10 games as a pitcher in the same year. The Gators returned to Omaha for the 1998 College World Series, and he was named College Player of the Year by Rotary Smith.

Wilkerson was inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as a "Gator Great" in 2010. He was inducted into the National College Baseball Hall of Fame in June 2012.

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