Six
Dirtbags selected in baseball draft
By Li-Wei Yang
Summer Online Forty-Niner
After
demolishing opponents in an unprecedented
fashion and two more wins away from the
College World Series, the Long Beach State
Dirtbags got a pleasant news: Two Dirtbags
have been drafted in the second round of
the Major League Baseball amateur draft
Tuesday.
Left-handed Abe Alvarez was drafted as the
49th player by the Boston Red Sox. “It’s
unbelievable. I didn’t expect to go this
high,” Alvarez stated in the Long Beach
Press Telegram. “It’s just the best feeling
in life.”
Six players later catcher Todd Jennings
was picked 55th overall by the San Francisco
Giants. “I’m just in total shock,” said
Jennings in the LBPT. “The Giants were my
favorite team growing up and it’s a total
dream come true. I was wearing my Giants
hat when I got drafted. There are really
no words to explain it.”
Long considered the ace of the Dirtbags’
pitching rotation, Alvarez has twice won
the Big West Pitcher of the Year award.
In his two-year tenure with the Dirtbags
Alvarez has a winning record of 23-4 with
a whopping 2.60 earned run average to go
with it. His ERA is the sixth best in school
history. His incredible control enabled
him to fan a total of 190 batters with only
59 walks in 221 1-3 innings.
Jennings struggled early in the season —
hitting only .161 in early April — but has
had tremendous success at the plate in the
last two months. To date he currently carries
a 26-game hitting streak heading into Friday’s
Super Regional opener at Stanford; he is
one game shy of the Long Beach State’s school
record. Jennings’ batting average during
the hot-hitting streak is .390 (46 for 118),
which raised his overall average to a healthy
.293. At the Long Beach State regional he
was selected as the Most Outstanding Player
in the tournament.
The MLB scouting report describes Alvarez
as “a crafty lefthander…knows how to pitch…won’t
light up the radar gun but comes with various
arm angles and speeds,” according to the
LBPT. And it describes Jennings as having
“a major league throwing arm with good carry.”
In addition, right-hander Bo Ashabraner
was drafted in the eighth round by the Clevealnd
Indians. Infielder Tim Hutting was also
taken in the same round by the Giants. In
the 11th round third baseman Adam Heether
was selected by the Milwaukee Brewers, and
the New York Mets selected closer Carlos
Muniz in the 13th round.
Currently the team ranked No. 6 in Collegiate
Baseball and moved up a spot in Baseball
America as No. 7. If the Dirtbags can win
the next two games starting Friday’s Super
Regional in Palo Alto against Stanford,
it will make its fifth trip to the College
World Series in Omaha. The Dirtbags will
play on Friday at 7:05 p.m., Saturday at
5:05 p.m. and Sunday at 3:05 p.m. Games
on Saturday and Sunday will be broadcast
on ESPN2.
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