University of Houston Athletics
Baseball Well Represented in Amateur Draft
6/3/2003 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
June 3, 2003
HOUSTON - Five University of Houston baseball players were taken during Tuesday's first day of the 2003 amateur draft.
Pitchers Ryan Wagner and Brad Sullivan made UH history by becoming the first players to be taken in the first round. Wagner was taken with the 14th overall pick by the Cincinnati Reds, while Sullivan was taken at No. 25 by the Oakland Athletics.
Five Cougars have been drafted in the second round with the most recent occurrence coming in 2002 when Chris Snyder was taken by Arizona and Jesse Crain was selected by Minnesota.
Centerfielder Michael Bourn was taken in the fourth round with the 115th overall pick by the Philadelphia Phillies. Junior southpaw Danny Zell became the third Cougar pitcher taken in the first five rounds at the 130th overall pick in the fifth round by the Detroit Tigers. Junior southpaw Brian Henderson was taken with the first pick of the seventh round (No. 188 overall) by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
This season, Wagner has emerged as one of the nation's finest closers. He has thrown a UH single-season record 14 saves and became the school's career saves leader with 15 in only two years.
With 138 strikeouts in only 74.1 innings this season, he is striking out an amazing 16.7 batters per nine innings. If he can continue that pace, he will shatter the NCAA Division I record of 16.2 set by George Dugan of Murray State in 1964.
A three-year starter, Sullivan owns every UH strikeout record. He has twice tossed 16 strikeouts in one game to set that record and set the season record with 157 strikeouts in 2002. The junior righthander needs only six more strikeouts at this weekend's NCAA Super Regional at Houston to top that mark.
Finally, he became the first player in UH history and only the second in Conference USA career history to reach the 400-strikeout milestone. With three strikeouts against the Owls this weekend, Sullivan will sit atop the C-USA record book in that category as well.
Although hampered by injuries at times during the 2003 season, Bourn has rebounded to record a .327 batting average and tops the team with 22 stolen bases. The Humble, Texas, native ignited the Cougar rally in the bottom of the ninth during the championship of the NCAA Regional at College Station on Sunday by blasting a triple off the center field wall.
Zell has been a constant in the Cougars' weekend rotation this season. The Cypress, Texas, native leads UH with eight wins and has added a 3.47 ERA and 76 strikeouts in 106.1 innings of work.
He started the Cougar winning streak at the NCAA College Station Regional with a solid pitching performance against Oral Roberts in the team's first elimination game and tied a career high with 7.1 innings pitched against the Golden Eagles.
Henderson has been an effective middle reliever in 2003 and even jumped into the team's starting rotation midway through the year. The Sugar Land, Texas native was honored as the C-USA Pitcher of the Week after helping lead the Cougars to win over Rice in the Silver Glove Series finale and Conference USA rival Saint Louis.
All five players will be in action this weekend during the NCAA Super Regional at Houston, hosted by Rice at Reckling Park. The winner of the best-of-three series advances to the NCAA College World Series.
Fans can catch all the action from the series on KAXF 88.3 FM or over the Internet at www.UHcougars.com. Fans also can follow the action batter-by-batter at www.NCAAsports.com.
The 50-round draft continues through Thursday.
