June 6, 2012
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Two more Hurricanes had the good fortunes of hearing their names called on the final day of Major League Baseball’s 2012 First-Year Player Draft, bringing the team’s total to five active players selected by four different professional organizations over the past three days.
First on the afternoon was junior lefthander Steven Ewing, taken early in the 20th round by the Seattle Mariners. Ewing, who moved into the weekend rotation where he became an impact starter for Head Coach Jim Morris, led the team with 88 strikeouts while recording an impressive 6-3 record. The Orlando, Fla. native, who tied for the team-lead with 16 starts on the season, finished second on the Hurricanes with 91.1 innings pitched in 2012.
Fourteen rounds later, another baseball player’s dream came true as the Draft neared its end. The New York Yankees used their Round 34 selection to take veteran southpaw and Hurricane great Eric Erickson. The sixth-year graduate student, who grew up rooting for the Bronx Bombers, was originally drafted by the organization out of high school. Erickson, who earned Second-Team All-ACC recognition after a stellar final year in Coral Gables, led the Hurricanes with eight wins and an impressive 66:11 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
Ewing and Erickson joined fellow Hurricanes Peter O’Brien (New York Yankees, second round), E.J. Encinosa (San Francisco Giants, seventh round) and Stephen Perez (Washington Nationals, eighth round) as professional baseball candidates.
In addition to the five current Hurricanes selected, signees Carlos Correa (Houston Astros, first round), Albert Almora (Chicago Cubs, first round), Nick Travieso (Cincinatti Reds, first round), Keon Barnum (Chicago White Sox, supplemental round), Walker Weickel (San Diego Padres, supplemental round), Adrian Marin (Baltimore Orioles, third round), Thomas Pannone (Chicago Cubs, 33rd round), Brandon Lopez (Toronto Blue Jays, 34th round) and David Thompson (New York Yankees, 38th round) were all selected.
The deadline for signing players selected in the First-Year Player Draft is 5 p.m. on Friday, July 13. For more information on Hurricanes baseball, follow the team on Twitter (@CanesBaseball) or on the official team blog (TheUBaseball.com).