Dirtbags Drafted by MLB
Relief pitcher Austin McGeorge was the second Dirtbags player chosen on Friday in the 2016 MLB Draft, going in the seventh round to the New York Mets with the 220th overall pick. McGeorge, a junior out of Anaheim, Calif., led the Big West Conference with 33 appearance out of the LBSU bullpen, earning First Team All-Big West recognition in 2016.
McGeorge posted a 1.02 ERA working 53.0 innings of relief with five saves on the season. He allowed just 35 hits and 14 walks while striking out a whopping 76 batters. Opposing batters hit just .197 off the righthander, who worked his way into the closer's role at the end of the season.
In perhaps his most memorable performance of the 2016 season, McGeorge worked five innings of scoreless relief against Nebraska, seeing the 0-0 game through from the eighth through the 12th inning. At one point, he struck out seven consecutive Cornhuskers on his way to a career-high nine in those five innings of work.
The last Long Beach State player drafted by the Mets was infielder Jeff McNeil, chosen in the 12th round of the 2013 draft. Long Beach State has had a pitcher drafted in the seventh round of consecutive drafts; the Oakland Athletics took Kyle Friedrichs with the 218th overall pick last year.
With SS Garrett Hampson getting drafted by the Colorado Rockies earlier Friday, Long Beach State has now produced multiple MLB Draft picks in each of the last 16 years.
Two more Dirtbags were selected on the final day of the 2016 MLB Draft, with a pair of sophomore pitchers getting the call from big league clubs on Saturday. RHP Chris Mathewsonwas picked in the 19th round (581st overall) by the Los Angeles Dodgers and LHP Lucas Jacobsen was chosen by the Texas Rangers in the 27th round (819th overall). That brings the total of LBSU players taken in this year's draft to four, with SS Garrett Hampson (3rd round) and RHP Austin McGeorge (7th round) getting selected on Friday.
Mathewson, a draft-eligible sophomore, was drafted for the second time. He was a 28th round selection of the Rangers in the 2014 draft, coming out of Kaiser High School. Mathewson was the 2015 Big West Freshman Pitcher of the Year, posting a 1.94 ERA in his first season at Long Beach State. After working back from injury prior to his sophomore season, Mathewson was 8-5 with a 3.62 ERA as the primary Friday night starter for the Dirtbags. He racked up 107 strikeouts in 104.1 innings pitched this season, ranking him second in the Big West.
Jacobsen is a redshirt sophomore who just completed his first season at Long Beach State after transferring from Santa Barbara City College. The lefthander reliever made 23 appearances out of the Dirtbags bullpen, and also made one start in a Tuesday night game at LMU. Jacobsen worked 30 innings with a 3.30 ERA, striking out 35 batters while allowing opponents to hit just .192 against him.
It's been a while since the Dodgers and Rangers have drafted a Long Beach State player. The last Dirtbags player picked by the Dodgers was Matt Montgomery in 1997, and the Rangers haven't picked a Dirtbag since drafting Justin Siegel in 1996. A total of 21 players have now been drafted during Troy Buckley's six years as Dirtbags head coach.
