Pitt’s Evangelista drafted by Blue Jays

Last week Major League Baseball held their annual First Year Player Draft. More than 1,400… Last week Major League Baseball held their annual First Year Player Draft. More than 1,400 players were drafted by the 30 Major League franchises over three days.

Pitt pitcher Nick Evangelista was the only Pitt player selected in the draft, and one of 18 Big East players drafted.

The Toronto Blue Jays selected Evangelista as the 710th overall pick in the 24th round. The selection of Evangelista in the draft was no surprise to Pitt head baseball coach Joe Jordano, but the round in which Evangelista went was.

“I thought [Evangelista] would go higher,” Jordano said. “I believe he was as good a pitcher as we saw this year.”

This season Evangelista went 8-5 with a 3.32 ERA. He led the team with 89 1/3 innings pitched, six complete games and 76 strikeouts, while walking only 20 batters over the course of the season.

“[Evangelista] was throwing 90-92 miles per hour and he had a good breaking ball,” Jordano said. “There were several scouts at all his starts, and he ended the season on a high note.”

Run support was limited for Evangelista during the season. In his five losses, the Panthers scored only six total runs, while they scored 50 runs in his eight wins. Now the six-foot-three-inch, right-handed pitcher will be able to take his skills to the next level – north of the border.

The MLB draft is unlike the basketball or football draft. College players are eligible after their junior season and are able to return to their respective schools if they are drafted but do not sign with the ball club that drafted them.

Three other Pitt players were eligible for the draft last week: shortstop Bryan Spamer, pitcher Don Rhoten and pitcher Jeff Barnyak. None of the three were drafted and all three will return to Pitt for their senior seasons.

“Scouts knew they wouldn’t forego their senior seasons, so no one drafted them,” Jordano said.

As for the Big East Conference, this marked the first time since 1993 that a player in the conference was not drafted in the first round. West Virginia centerfielder and Big East Co-Player of the Year Jarod Rine was the first Big East player selected in the ninth round by the Baltimore Orioles.

The first pitcher selected from the Big East was Notre Dame’s J.P. Gagne, who went to the Colorado Rockies with the 407th overall pick in the 14th round. Out of the 18 Big East players selected, 12 were pitchers.

Evangelista will have some company from his conference at the Blue Jays spring training site next April, since Toronto selected Rutgers’ third baseman Vinnie Esposito in the 22nd round with the 650th overall pick.

Connecticut, Notre Dame and Seton Hall each had three players selected, while St. John’s, Villanova and West Virginia each had two players drafted. Pitt, Rutgers and Virginia Tech rounded out the Big East selections with one player each selected in the 2003 draft.

“The conference had a little of a down year,” Jordano said. “But we have great young talent. The sophomores around the conference are excellent, and there are definitely some potential first rounders for next year’s draft.”