Three Oregon baseball players — Oregon catcher Aaron Jones, reliever Joey Housey and starting pitcher Alex Keudell — were selected in the MLB Draft on Wednesday. @@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205437105@@
Jones, a sophomore from San Clemente, Calif., is coming off a 2012 season that saw him hit .303 with six home runs and 39 RBIs. An All-Pac-12 team honorable mention, he was the first Duck to come off the board when the Colorado Rockies selected him with the 558th pick in the 18th round. @@http://www.pac-12.org/portals/7/images/baseball/stats/2011-12/HTML/ore.htm@@
It would take until the 27th round for another Oregon player to be selected, as Housey was picked by the Cincinnati Reds with the 832nd pick. The redshirt junior from Hollywood, Fla., put together a team-best 1.85 ERA in 34 innings of relief in 2012, and was also named to the Pac-12 All-Academic First Team. @@http://www.pac-12.org/Baseball/Tabid/1448/Article/157059/Pac-12-All-Academic-Teams-Announced.aspx@@
Pac-12 Pitcher of the Year Keudell also came off the board in the 27th round, as the Tampa Bay Rays selected him with the 842nd pick. Keudell, a senior from Portland, was also drafted in 2011 by the Minnesota Twins, but chose to return to Oregon instead of joining the professional ranks. A sterling 11-4 record to go along with a 2.38 ERA in 2012 helped vault Keudell up 11 rounds in the draft (he went in the 38th round last year), and he is the only one of Oregon’s three drafted players who is sure to move on from Eugene. @@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?&ATCLID=1599975&DB_OEM_ID=500@@