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Kenny Baugh
First WAC player chosen in
2001 MLB Draft, 11th overall. |
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Denver, CO - Major League Baseball completed its annual First-Year Player draft yesterday and 21 WAC baseball players were picked. Louisiana Tech, a WAC member beginning July 1, also had one player drafted. There were a total of 50 rounds, and every team in the WAC except Nevada had at least one player chosen.
Rice led all WAC schools with seven players drafted including four pitchers and two in the first round. San Jose State had five players selected, Fresno State was third with four, TCU had three and Hawaii and Hawaii-Hilo had one each.
Rices Kenny Baugh was the first player selected from a WAC school and was picked by Detroit with the 11th overall pick. Baugh is a two-time WAC Pitcher of the Year. His teammate, Jon Skaggs, was also taken in the first round by the New York Yankees. It marks the second time Rice has had two first-round selections in the draft. In 1997, Matt Anderson was the top pick in the draft (Detroit) and Lance Berkman was 16th (Houston).
Two more pitchers went next as Fresno States Nick Moran was a third round pick and Rices Philip Barzilla was taken by Houston in the fourth round. Fresno State shortstop Josh Labandeira was the first position player taken and went to Montreal in the sixth round. Labandeira was the WACs Player of the Year.
Several first team All-WAC players were drafted as well including: Baugh, Barzilla, Labandeira, Fresno States Brandon Gemoll, Rices Hunter Brown, San Jose States Junior Ruiz and Chris Sherman and TCUs Chris Bradshaw and Erick Macha.
Louisiana Tech pitcher Lee Gwaltney was a 27th round selection of St. Louis.
WAC Players Selected
Rd. Pick Name Pos. School Team
1 11 Kenny Baugh P Rice Detroit
1 42 Jon Skaggs P Rice New York (A)
3 97 Nick Moran P Fresno State Cleveland
4 116 Philip Barzilla P Rice Houston
6 172 Josh Labandeira SS Fresno State Montreal
8 238 Brandon Gemoll 1B Fresno State Milwaukee
9 276 Junior Ruiz 2B San Jose St. Cincinnati
10 309 Beau Hintz P Fresno State Seattle
11 344 Jesse Roman 1B Rice St. Louis
12 368 Erick Macha 2B TCU Arizona
13 400 Matt Kauffman P San Jose St. Los Angeles
14 411 Chris Bradshaw P TCU Texas
17 498 Nick Martin P Rice Chicago (N)
21 641 Jeff Coleman P Hawaii Oakland
25 746 Chad Durham P TCU Houston
30 912 Chris Sherman P San Jose St. New York (N)
31 930 Hunter Brown 3B Rice San Diego
31 941 Brian Rooke OF Hawaii-Hilo Oakland
32 956 Billy Jacobson OF Rice Houston
33 986 John Fagan 1B San Jose St. Houston
34 1016 Brandon Macchi OF San Jose St. Houston