June 9, 2007

SAN DIEGO -

Seven members of the 2007 San Diego State baseball team, including six pitchers, were selected on day two of the annual first-year player draft conducted by Major League Baseball on June 7-8. The total matched the most players taken by a Mountain West Conference school as TCU also had seven athletes drafted.

Of the seven, only one was a senior this past season. Four of the others were juniors while two were sophomores in eligibility after having redshirted during one of their collegiate seasons.

SDSU's highest pick was pitcher Lance Sewell (7th round, Oakland), who earned second-team all-MWC honors this past season, tied for the team lead with five wins while compiling a 3.16 earned run average and recording 74 strikeouts in 77 innings. The 6-1 lefty completed his second season at SDSU after transferring from Arizona for the 2006 campaign.

Another left-handed hurler, Donnie Hume (8th round, Seattle) was SDSU's Friday pitching starter before he was sidelined by injury and missed the second half of the season. The junior transfer from Long Beach finished with a 4-2 mark and a 3.07 ERA. Opponents hit just .221 against him in 2007.

Junior Steven Hirschfeld (9th round, Minnesota) tied for the team victory lead with a 5-4 mark along with a 4.41 earned run average. The junior from Moab, Utah, has been drafted twice previously: 29th round by Montreal in 2004 and 25th round by Colorado in 2005.

The next two Aztec selections, Garrett Parcell (Norco, Calif., Cypress JC) and Charles Nolte (San Diego, Serra HS) saw limited duty this past season. Parcell (12th round, Florida) had a 1-0 mark with a 6.52 ERA in eight relief appearances while Nolte (24th round, Minnesota) had a 7.13 earned run average after moving into the role of Tuesday starter late in the year.

Bruce Billings (30th round, Colorado), a San Diego native (Morse HS) who was a four-year letterman for the Aztecs, compiled a 4-4 mark with a 4.48 ERA as a senior. He set the SDSU strikeout record during the recently completed campaign, breaking mark that had stood for the past 20 years.

The only Aztec non-pitcher was Brandon Glover (50th round, Pittsburgh), an outfielder from McKinney Texas who came to the Aztecs from Texas A&M. He hit .276 and led the team in doubles (15), triples (5) and sacrifice flies (5). He was also second on the squad in RBI (40) and walks (29) and was a second-team all-conference honoree.

The list of Aztecs selected is as follows:
Player        .....Pos.....Team......Round
Lance Sewell.......LHP....Oakland.....7th
Donnie Hume........LHP....Seattle.....8th
Steven Hirschfeld..RHP...Minnesota....9th
Garrett Parcell....RHP....Florida... 12th
Charles Nolte......RHP...Minnesota...24th
Bruce Billings.....RHP...Colorado....30th
Brandon Glover......OF..Pittsburgh...50th