Photo courtesy of rolltide.com
Brock Love might be spending quite a bit of time in South Florida in the future.
The 2015 Southside High graduate and University of Alabama redshirt junior recently was selected by the Miami Marlins in the 34th round (the 1,011 players taken overall) in the 2019 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft.
Love (pictured above) earned an undergraduate in business this past December and currently is pursuing a master’s degree in marketing and is scheduled to graduate in December of this year
Love began his career splitting time as a starter and reliever before transitioning into a weekend starter role this season in 2019. This past season, Love led all UA pitchers in strikeouts with 66. Love ranked second in starts with 13 to go with two relief appearances and sported a 5-5 record in 60 innings.
Against South Alabama on March 2, Love picked up the win with 4.2 shutout frames in which he allowed just one hit and a walk. He struck out a career-high and team-best 11 hitters, including five of the first six batters he faced. He also retired the first eight hitters he faced, using seven strikeouts in the process.
Love’s 2017 season was cut short after six games when he underwent elbow surgery. Prior to his injury, he went 1-2 and struck out 27 batters and walked nine in 16.2 frames. He received a medical redshirt at the end of the season. Love returned from injury in 2018 to go 2-0 with a perfect 0.00 ERA across six appearances, including one start, and 8.1 innings of work.
As a freshman in 2016, Love made 11 appearances with four starts and maintained a 3.30 ERA with 33 strikeouts. In his four starts as a freshman, he held a 2.81 ERA with 21 strikeouts and only three walks.
Over his collegiate career, Love has an 8-7-1 record with a 4.30 earned run average and 135 strikeouts in 115.0 innings.
Love also made his presence felt in the community. In addition to being selected to the 2019 SEC Baseball Community Service Team for his volunteer efforts at UA, this past April he received the university’s Male Heart of Service award, which is presented to Alabama’s top male student-athlete for his dedication to the community, after contributing triple-digit volunteer hours.
During his senior year at Southside in 2015, Love posted a 2.12 earned run average with 73 strikeouts in 46.3 innings as the Panthers finished with a 34-10 record, a final regular season ranking of No. 4, area and county tournaments championships and a berth in the Class 5A state quarterfinals. Following the season, Love was ranked as the No. 1 player in the state of Alabama by Perfect Game USA and was ranked as the nation’s 31st-ranked right-handed pitcher. He was the first Southside High graduate to play for a Southeastern Conference team directly out of high school.
As a freshman in 2012, Love helped Southside advance to the 5A state championship series. Love was a member of the National Honor Society while maintaining a 3.6 grade point average all four years.
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