For the second straight year, a Stan State baseball player is drafted
Wednesday marked the final day of the 2019 MLB Draft and with their 37th round pick, the Oakland Athletics drafted Stanislaus State senior pitcher Chase Wheatcroft.
Wheatcroft was 6-4 with a 2.64 earned run average in 2019 and had 55 strikeouts in 77 1/3 innings. He was an All-CCAA (California Collegiate Athletic Association) First-Team honoree.
The 6-foot-6 right-handed Wheatcroft set a Stan State record with 27 consecutive scoreless innings before senior Matt Pulos set a new mark with 32.
As a junior, the Santa Clarita native had a 0.93 ERA with 11 saves.
It’s the second straight year a Stan State player was drafted as right-handed pitcher Joe Ryan was taken in the seventh round by the Tampa Bay Rays in 2018.
He’s 2-2 with a 2.93 ERA for Bowling Green in the Single-A Midwest League. He has an overall minor-league record of 7-5 with a 3.07 ERA. He’s struck out 133 and walked 30.
Oakdale grad drafted by Royals: USC junior left-handed pitcher Austin Manning was drafted by the Royals in the 19th round.
Manning played his senior year of high school baseball at Oakdale after spending his first three years at Heritage High in Livermore. He was 7-3 with a 1.33 ERA for the Mustangs and had 25 strikeouts in 21 innings for the Trojans in 2019.
This story was originally published June 5, 2019 at 3:50 PM.
