June 8, 2005

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Former Wake Forest infielder Ben Ingold was chosen in the 24th round of the 2005 Major League Baseball Draft by the Oakland Athletics Wednesday afternoon.

"I'm extremely excited to have the opportunity to go on and play professional baseball," Ingold said. "I could not be happier joining an organization like Oakland. The Athletics are a team that believes in college baseball and I hope to continue their success with drafting players from the NCAA."

Ingold (Durham, N.C.) had a stellar four-year career with the Demon Deacons. He played in 214 games over his career, starting 213 of them. Ingold finished with a career .323 batting average, 10 home runs and 148 RBI. He registered 281 hits -- good for third all-time behind former All-Americans Jake Austin and Jon Palmeiri. Ingold also finished fourth all-time with 870 at-bats.

Freshman All-America in 2002 and second team All-ACC in 2004, Ingold batted .310 with 14 doubles, four home runs, 42 RBI and 19 stolen bases this past season. After a slow start to the year, Ingold batted .336 with four home runs, 35 RBI and 47 runs scored over the final 46 games of the season.

Justin Keadle, who sat out the entire 2005 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery, was drafted in the 44th round by the New York Yankees. In 2004, he ranked second in the ACC at 6.84 innings per start. Keadle went 2-5 with a 6.22 ERA. He made 13 starts for the Demon Deacons and tossed a pair of complete games. Keadle also fanned 66 and walked 29 in 88.1 innings pitched.

Wake Forest finished the 2005 campaign with a 28-30 overall record and 12-18 in the ACC. The Deacs not only improved their overall win total by 11 games from 2004, but they also captured eight more games in ACC play. The 11-game improvement in victories was the largest over one season since 1997. That season, Wake Forest won 37 games after winning just 26 in 1996. The school record improvement from one season to the next was 15-games set by the 1949 team which was the runnerup at the College World Series.

Wake Forest Signees in the Draft
Player              Pos.  Round/Pick   Team
Allan Dykstra       1B    34th/1038    Red Sox

-- WakeForestSports.com --