2015 Sooner Baseball Draft Recap

NORMAN, Okla. – The University of Oklahoma baseball team led the country with 11 players selected in the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft with nine drafted on day three, Wednesday. The Sooners matches their previous program-record of 11 draft picks from 2011. OU finished ahead of UCSB at 10, while Arizona State, Florida, Illinois and Vanderbilt all totaled nine.

Catcher Anthony Hermelyn (McKinney, Texas) highlighted day two action for the Sooners on Tuesday as a fourth round pick of the Houston Astros. The 109^th overall selection, he was the highest drafted position player from Oklahoma since Jackson Williams was taken in the first round in 2007. Hermelyn hit .321 with a team-leading 49 RBI on six home runs and a .453 slugging percentage. The All-Big 12 First Team member was followed by left-handed pitcher Jacob Evans (Broken Arrow, Okla.) with the 191^st pick in the sixth round by the St. Louis Cardinals. Evans, the Sooner closer, is coming off an All-Big 12 Second Team selection. He also became the 14^th pitcher from the state of Oklahoma to play at OU and be drafted within the first 10 rounds. Evans went 6-1 with eight saves and is just the third player in program history with 15 or more wins and saves.

Day three started off for the Sooners with center fielder Craig Aikin (Coppell, Texas), who spent last summer playing for the Harwich Mariners of the Cape Cod Baseball League along with Hermelyn and Evans, joining Evans on the Cardinals' draft card in the 13^th round with the 401^st pick. Aikin, an All-Big 12 First Team honoree, hit .340 with 47 runs and 15 doubles. He ranks 12^th all-time at Oklahoma with 236 career hits and set the program record for hits in a game against UALR with six on March 3, 2015.

Sooners came off the board in three consecutive rounds as lefty Adam Choplick (Denton, Texas) was drafted 408^th by the Texas Rangers in the 14^th and catcher Chris Shaw (Winnipeg, Man.) went 463^rd to the Baltimore Orioles in the 15^th. Both players are three-time MLB draft picks. Choplick went in the 18^th to the Diamondbacks out of high school before Tommy John surgery and was selected in the 32^nd by the Chicago White Sox a year ago. Shaw, the first Manitoban to play in the Big 12, was drafted out of high school by the Milwaukee Brewers in the 38^th and later in the 14^th by the Cardinals out of junior college.

Four straight right-handed pitchers were taken in the middle rounds beginning with Robert Tasin (Klein, Texas) at 564 by the Philadelphia Phillies in the 19^th round. He posted a team-best 9-2 record with a 2.52 earned run average as a senior. At the plate, he hit .260 with 19 RBI; earning a spot as a semifinalist for the John Olerud Award (Two-Way Player) and Gregg Olson Award (Breakout Player). Thomas McIlraith (Amarillo, Texas) went in the 20^th to the New York Mets with the 599^th pick. A junior college transfer, he appeared in 13 games out of the bullpen for the Sooners.

Ralph Garza Jr. (New Braunfels, Texas) was chosen with the 769^th pick in the 26^th round by the Houston Astros. He led OU in appearances with 30 for the second straight season and ranks third all times with 84 games pitched. Corey Copping (Temple City, Calif.) was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 31^st round with the 942^nd pick. A versatile starter and reliever, Copping battled back from appendicitis to post a 4-1 record and 3.92 ERA for the season.

In the late rounds, second baseman Kolbey Carpenter (Waco, Texas) went 979^th overall to the Astros in the 33^rd and right-hander Blake Rogers (Lewisville, Texas) rounded out the class in the 37^th as the 1,107^th overall pick to the San Diego Padres. Carpenter, an All-Big 12 First Team selection, led the way for the Sooners with a .360 average, nine home runs and 49 runs scored. Rogers appeared out of the bullpen in 12 games after arriving in Norman as a junior college transfer.

Since the inception of the draft in 1965, 254 Sooners have been selected. At least one OU player has been drafted in each year since 1970. In Oklahoma's 11-man draft class, only Choplick and Shaw had been drafted before arriving in Norman.

Players Mentioned

Craig Aikin

Kolbey Carpenter

Adam Choplick

Corey Copping

Jacob Evans

Ralph Garza Jr.

Anthony Hermelyn

Thomas McIlraith

Blake Rogers

Chris Shaw

Robert Tasin

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University of Oklahoma Athletics