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UT Coach Excited About Pitcher Gerbasi

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By DAREK SHARP, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 5, 2007

PLANT CITY - Last week, Plant City High senior Aaron Gerbasi signed a scholarship to pitch for two-time defending national baseball champion University of Tampa.

With the legalities of the signing out of the way, University of Tampa head coach Joe Urso was able to make his first official comments on Gerbasi, and they revealed just how badly the Spartans wanted him.

"He was the guy we targeted," Urso said. "He is the guy we want to build our pitching staff around."

Tampa has been loaded up with good pitchers recently, winning back-to-back national titles.

Gerbasi, a tall right hander, blew away Urso and Spartans pitching coach Sam Militello at a fall showcase event at the university. Militello is a former major leaguer who played for the University of Tampa.

"He has it all, the size, the very strong body. The fastball, which he will only be able to throw harder, and a good, fast slider. We're excited about his ability to contribute right away as a freshman," Urso said.

Urso said that, similar to recent UT aces Eric Beattie and Sergio Perez - who were both selected in the second round of the Major League Baseball draft - Gerbasi will be eased in as the fourth starter his freshmen year.

A poor win-loss record his junior season at Plant City did not affect Urso's opinion of Gerbasi. In the regular season, Gerbasi only allowed two earned runs but had a lack of run support.

It was during Gerbasi's sophomore season that Urso was first made aware of the pitcher. Ken White, who played at UT, was the Raider coach at the time.

Reporter Darek Sharp can be reached at dsharp@tampa trib.com.

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