After a baseball season that saw the Tribe (34-22) finish two wins short of an NCAA tournament bid, three William & Mary players were drafted by Major League clubs. Juniors Michael Katz and Nick Thompson, as well as Senior Ryan Lindemuth were selected.
Nick Thompson was drafted in the 8th round by the St. Louis Cardinals. Michael Katz was drafted ten picks later in the 9th round by the New York Mets. And the New York Yankees drafted Ryan Lindemuth in the 37th round.
Ryan Lindemuth was actually drafted last year by the Pittsburgh Pirates with the 599th overall pick, but chose to forego the selection in order to play out his Senior year at William & Mary.
Overall, Virginia colleges faired well in the draft, with UVA (9), Liberty University (4), Old Dominion (2), James Madison (2), Virginia Military Institute (2), Virginia Tech (2) and Radford (1). According to this list, William & Mary had the 3rd most players drafted relative to all other Virginia colleges, trailing only UVA and Liberty.
This marks 5 draft selections in the last two seasons for William & Mary baseball (counting Lindemuth twice), directly signifying the current strength of the program. We will continue to monitor the story to see if Thompson and Katz will forego their Senior years at W&M in order to pursue a life of professional baseball. Go Tribe!
-Davey
The William and Mary Sports Blog 