Before we take a look at Mr. Wetherbee, 2018’s top starter, here is the list of top starters since this series began in 2007:

2017- Zach Peek, Strasburg
2016- Erne Valdes, Front Royal
2015- Hayden McCutcheon, Charlottesville
2014- Keegan Long, Front Royal
2013- Ricky Winters, Woodstock
2012- Jansen Carr, Winchester
2011- Aaron Luchterhand, Harrisonburg
2010- Greg Nappo, Haymarket
2009- Grant Sasser, Haymarket
2008- Drew Rucinski, Luray
2007- Dustin Umberger, Luray

Jared Wetherbee Charlottesville 2018

We’ve seen many good pitchers throughout the years, but I’m not sure we’ve seen one give up as few hits as our top starter in 2018, Charlottesville’s Jared Wetherbee.

Jared, a 5-10 lefthanded sophomore from Elon, gave up just 7 hits in 25 1/3 regular season innings. Let’s take a look at the whole line:

Char ERA W L G GS IP H R ER BB K B/AVG WHIP BB/9 K/9
2018 1.06 3 1 11 3 25.3 7 3 3 14 44 0.085 0.830 5.0 15.7
Play 2.25 0 0 1 1 4.0 5 2 1 2 7 0.313 1.750 4.5 15.8

Of pitchers on the starters list, Jared finished 1st in ERA, K’s, K/9, batting average against, and WHIP. First in all of those categories! He was ATVL’s pitcher of the day three times, was first team All-Valley, and, of course, the Pitcher of the Year. He was also named Baseball America’s 10th best prospect in the league.

He had two starts that were his best: the first was on July 10th against Staunton, when he threw 5 shutout innings while allowing 1 hit, 1 walk, and struck out 9. It was the 14th best in the VBL, according to game score. The second one was on July 22 at Winchester, when he again threw 5 shutout innings of 1-hit ball. In this one, he walked 2 and struck out 8. The start was 19th best.

Jared also had a solid true freshman season at Elon:

Elon ERA W L G GS IP H R ER BB K B/AVG WHIP BB/9 K/9
2018 4.07 2 1 23 0 24.3 11 11 11 29 45 0.136 1.646 10.7 16.7

The BB/9 is a little high, but he was almost as unhittable as he was during the summer. He was named to the 2018 CAA All-Rookie team, and his team’s Freshman of the Year.

Congratulations on your excellent summer, Jared!