June 6, 2012

NEWPORT NEWS, Va.--Eight Atlantic 10 players were taken in the 2012 Major League Baseball First-Year player Draft Tuesday and Wednesday. Xavier junior pitcher Seth Willoughby was selected in the fourth round on day one of the draft. Seven other players were taken Wednesday.

Massachusetts' Dennis Torres was picked in the 28th round by the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday, followed by Richmond's Adam McConnell, who was taken in the 29th round by the Arizona Diamondbacks with the 903rd pick The Spiders also had Chris Cowell selected by the Colorado Rockies in the 34th round with the 1038th overall pick. Temple's Steven Nikorak was picked in the 32nd round by the Chicago White Sox and as was Rhode Island's Chris Pickering, who was selected by the San Francisco Giants. Dayton right-handed pitcher Mike Hauschild was selected by the Houston Astros in the 33rd Round and Charlotte senior catcher Miguel Rodriguez was selected in the 36th round by the Boston Red Sox.

Willoughby was selected by the Colorado Rockies with the 10th pick in the fourth round and was the 138th player selected overall, making him the highest draftee ever from Xavier University. The highest previous pick was Richard Donnelly who was taken with the 158th overall by the Yankees in the 1967 draft. Willoughby was recently named to the Atlantic 10 All-Conference Second Team after thriving in the closer's role for the Musketeers during the 2012 season. The right-hander had a 2-1 record with a 1.26 ERA and had 12 saves in 25 appearances and helped Xavier to its sixth straight 20-win season.

Torres, a right-handed pitcher (Lawrence, Mass.), helped the Minutemen to an Atlantic 10 Tournament berth as a junior this spring. He was taken with the 852nd pick overall. Since 1965, Torres is the 55th player from UMass to have his name called in the draft, the 36th of head coach Mike Stone's 25-year tenure with the Minutemen. Torres served as the No. 1 starter in the Minutemen's rotation in 2012 and went 4-4 with a 3.34 earned run average over 12 starts. He tossed a team-high 89 innings and was second on the team in strikeouts with 54, while walking 22. In his final start of the regular season, Torres threw his first complete game and struck out a career-high eight against George Washington. His 2012 single-season totals for games started and innings pitched rank seventh and eighth all-time in program history.

Dating back to the 1995 MLB Draft, Cowell and McConnell mark the 29th and 30th former Spider baseball players to be drafted.  Since head coach Mark McQueen took over the program prior to the 2008 season, five players have been selected a total of six times. This season, McConnell ended his Spider career with a solid redshirt junior campaign.  The Yorktown, Va., native hit .283 on the season with six doubles, two triples, two home runs, 24 walks, 12 stolen bases, and 24 RBIs.  McConnell was also a standout defensively for Richmond, making numerous outstanding plays at third base. This year's selection is the second in the career for McConnell, who was taken in the 30th round in 2011 by the Los Angeles Dodgers, but chose to return to Richmond.

Cowell earned First-Team All-Atlantic 10 accolades after leading the conference with 20 home runs and a .643 slugging percentage.  The Devon, Pa., native hit .271 on the year and had 18 doubles and 58 RBIs to go with his impressive homer total. For his career, Cowell graduated ranked fourth all-time in school history with 45 career home runs.  The senior backstop also ranked 10th all-time in program history in total bases with 363.  During his four years, Cowell was a two-time All-Atlantic 10 selection and made the all-tournament team in 2011.

Nikorak (981st pick overall) is 25th player to be drafted out of Temple University and the first Owl since 2009 to be drafted. Nikorak, who was named to the Atlantic 10 Conference's first team, is Temple's all-time leaders in doubles with 65, while being tied for fourth place all-time in program history with 228 hits and tied for seventh in the school's record book with 182 games started. In 2012, the Owls' hot corner, who fielded a percentage of .938 and batted .302 was voted the "Hitter You'd Least Like to Face in the A-10" by College Baseball Insider coming into the season.

Pickering (Lincoln, R.I.), a left-handed pitcher was the 988th overall pick, becoming URI's 11th player drafted since 2003. This past season, Pickering turned in a 7-7 record, striking out 51 batters over 86.1 innings pitched. Pickering - who finished his collegiate career with 168 strikeouts and 22 wins - becomes the ninth Rhode Island baseball player to sign with an MLB team under coach Jim Foster's guidance.

Hauschild, a senior from Beavercreek, Ohio, ended his collegiate career at UD with 23 wins, 269 strikeouts, 10 complete games and just 87 walks allowed. His 269 career strikeouts rank second at Dayton and his 23 career wins rank third. In 2012 Hauschild finished with the second-most single-season strikeouts in program history (92) while helping UD to its first-ever appearance in the NCAA Regionals. Hauschild is the 15th Flyer to be drafted in program history and the ninth under head coach Tony Vittorio. UD has had at least one player drafted in the last three years and feature two current major league-level pitchers - Jerry Blevins (Athletics) and Craig Stammen (Nationals).

Rodriguez (Cape Coral, Fla) was the first player picked in the draft from the 49ers in two seasons. He was selected with pick number 1111 overall. Rodriguez, whose father Victor is the roving minor league hitting instructor in the Red Sox organization, made 23 starts in 2012, playing in 32 total games, pushing his career mark to 104 games played in a four-year career. He finished his career with 50 total RBI and stole his only career base in 2012. He recorded a collegiate .236 batting average in 65 starts.
His best season was 2011, helping Charlotte to 43 wins and its fifth NCAA Tournament appearance. In that season he posted career-high season totals of a .300 batting average and 27 RBI. Two of those RBI came in a 4-3 home victory over No. 6 North Carolina on March 29, the fourth-straight season that Charlotte took a win over a team ranked in the top seven in the country. Both of his career triples and two of his three career home runs came in that 2011 season.

Massachusetts' Dennis Torres was picked in the 28th round by the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday, followed by Richmond's Adam McConnell, who was taken in the 29th round by the Arizona Diamondbacks with the 903rd pick The Spiders also had Chris Cowell selected by the Colorado Rockies in the 34th round with the 1038th overall pick. Temple's Steven Nikorak was picked in the 32nd round by the Chicago White Sox and as was Rhode Island's Chris Pickering, who was selected by the San Francisco Giants. Dayton right-handed pitcher Mike Hauschild was selected by the Houston Astros in the 33rd Round and Charlotte senior catcher Miguel Rodriguez was selected in the 36th round by the Boston Red Sox.

Round	Player	A-10 School	Position	Major League Team
4	Seth Willoughby	Xavier	Pitcher	Colorado Rockies
28	Dennis Torres	Massachusetts	Pitcher	Baltimore Orioles
29	Adam McConnell	Richmond	Third Base	Arizona Diamondbacks
32	Steven Nikorak	Temple	Third Base	Chicago White Sox
32	Chris Pickering	Rhode Island	Pitcher	San Francisco Giants
33	Mike Hauschild	Dayton	Pitcher	Houston Astros
34	Chris Cowell	Richmond	Catcher	Colorado Rockies
36	Miguel Rodriguez	Charlotte	Catcher	Boston Red Sox

----- A-10 -----