July 13, 2010
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By Brian Ormiston
UCFAthletics.com
ANAHEIM, Calif. (UCFAthletics.com) - Part of MLB All-Star FanFest in Anaheim, Calif., the USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award was presented to Southern Nevada's Bryce Harper Tuesday. UCF outfielder Chris Duffy was one of five finalists for the trophy and sat down live during MLB.com's broadcast before the announcement was made. As a finalist for the GSA, the Orlando native will go down in the history books as one of the top college baseball players in the entire country in 2010.
The three other finalists were Miami's Yasmani Grandal, Florida Gulf Coast's Chris Sale and Mississippi's Drew Pomeranz. A day earlier, the finalists in attendance got a first-hand look at the MLB festivities by stepping onto the field at Angels Stadium for All-Star Workouts.
Duffy is taking a break from his professional career to attend this week's events in California, which included his family also heading out to Anaheim to attend a formal dinner put on by USA Baseball. He is currently in the Philadelphia Phillies organization after being drafted in the 26th round in June, playing in the Gulf Coast League in Clearwater.
Duffy opened the 2010 season with the Knights by not even owning a spot on the GSA Watch List. But very soon, the baseball world took notice of the Cypress Creek High School graduate. After Opening Day, Duffy's batting average never fell below .430 during the entire season.
While posting a 20-game hitting streak in the first half of 2010, Duffy's power numbers were growing too. He hit 10 home runs quicker than any player in UCF history, and eventually broke the school's single-season and career homer records during the final weekend of the year.
At Tulane, Duffy smashed No. 19 in game one of the series to break Dee Brown's single-season mark, then in the finale, he launched No. 20 and No. 21 in two of his final three at-bats as a Knight. Home run No. 21, his first-collegiate grand slam, occurred in his last at-bat in a Black and Gold uniform to give him 43 all-time, matching Bobby Kiser's career mark.
Overall, Duffy went on to break the UCF and Conference USA records with a .447 batting average and an .850 slugging percentage. He also set a UCF mark with 81 RBI.
Not just a finalist for the most prestigious award in college baseball, Duffy was named a first-team All-American by five different outlets, helping him to be one of the most decorated UCF student-athletes of all-time.