Hurler David Hill highlights four former Pirates taken in MLB Draft
COSTA MESA -- Four former Orange Coast College baseball players were selected in this year's Major League Baseball First-Year Draft, according to Pirate baseball head coach, John Altobelli.
Leading the way for the former Bucs include right-hander David Hill, who was drafted in the fourth round (107th overall) by the Colorado Rockies.
Hill, who was a major component in the Pirates' 2014 state championship, played last year at the University of San Diego, where he went 9-3 with a 2.33 ERA and three complete games for the Toreros. This year's West Coast Conference Pitcher of the Year, Hill held batters to a .189 average and his 115 strikeouts were the seventh-most in a single season in school history.
At OCC, Hill posted an 11-1 record with a microscopic 1.67 ERA, allowing just 21 walks and 109 strikeouts in 113 innings, helping Coast to a 36-9 record and the first of back-to-back state championships for the Pirates. He was named the Co-Pitcher of the Year in the Orange Empire Conference and earned second-team, All-American honors for the Pirates in 2014.
As a freshman at Long Beach State, Hill went 4-2 with a 4.05 ERA before coming to Coast. In high school, Hill was named the Century League's Pitcher of the Year after going 4-2 with a 1.37 ERA for El Modena HS.
Hill's fourth-round selection is the highest selection of an OCC Pirate since Brandon Brennan was selected in the same round (141st overall) by the Chicago White Sox in the 2012 MLB Draft.
Joining Hill on the MLB Draft list include three other former Coast standouts -- first baseman Chris Iriart (12th round, 368th overall, Oakland A's), Kyle Dowdy (12th round, 370th overall, Detroit Tigers) and Zach Nehrir (16th round, 466th overall, Arizona Diamondbacks).
Iriart, who batted .316 with a state-best 10 home runs and 48 RBI for Coast's state championship team in 2014, batted .302 with 15 home runs and 40 RBI for the University of Houston in 2015.
Dowdy, who went 6-3 with a 2.38 ERA for the Pirates in 2013, was a teammate of Iriart's at Houston, where he posted a 9-2 record with a 2.45 ERA for the Cougars last year.
Nehrir, who batted .318 with 50 hits and 21 RBI for the Pirates in 2013, batted .333 with a team-best 76 hits, five home runs and 44 RBI as a senior for Houston Baptist in 2015.
