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:

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:

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:

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!