Former University of Alabama baseball player Joshua Rutledge started at shortstop for three years for the Crimson Tide and has now moved up into the major league, opting to leave after his junior year.

Rutledge was highly recruited out of high school after he hit a .445 batting average, with 17 home runs and 102 runs batted in during his junior and senior seasons at Cullman High School.

He carried that momentum into his freshman year at Alabama and had a phenomenal season. Rutledge played and started 61 games for the Tide and led the team in hitting with a .369 (99 for 268) batting average.

He became the second freshman in Tide history to lead the team in hitting. His 99 hits that year were the most ever by a freshman. He also led the Tide in other important statistical categories such as runs scored, stolen bases and multi-hit games. Those numbers earned him freshman All-American honors.

“My greatest personal accomplishments at UA were earning freshman All-American and being All-SEC for three straight years,” Rutledge said.

“Some of my greatest team accomplishments were making it to the Super Regional and playing well there this year and also making the SEC tournament all three years. We always went deep in the post season. We had great teams, great team chemistry.”

Now Rutledge has passed up his senior season and taken his talents to the next level. He was the 107th pick of the draft in this year’s Major League Baseball draft, selected in the third round by the Colorado Rockies. He’s currently playing shortstop in the minor leagues for the Tri-City Dust Devils in Pasco, Washington.

“The main difference between college and the pros is never knowing where you are going to be,” he said. “You are always traveling and you have to get used to a new team and build new team chemistry. The game itself stays the same, though.”

Rutledge was a 2010 first-team All-SEC selection and was a semifinalist for the 2010 Brooks Wallace Award, presented annually by the College Baseball Foundation to the top collegiate shortstop.

His 107 hits tied G.W. Keller (1999) for the second-most in Alabama history. David Magadan, who will be inducted into the College Baseball Hall of Fame later this week, holds the single-season record with 114 hits in 1983.

In 30 SEC games, Rutledge hit .353 (49-for-139) with five home runs and 33 RBI. He led the Tide in hits and RBIs in conference play. He hit safely in 29 of the 30 SEC games and posted a 21-game hitting streak in conference play.

The team will miss his stability on defense and his clutch hitting on offense. Tide second baseman Ross Wilson, who also left for the draft, and Rutledge were one of the nation’s top middle infield units.

In his years at Alabama, he secured his spot in the Tide’s record books.