Four LSU baseball players joined junior outfielder Jared Mitchell and sophomore infielder DJ LeMahieu as 2009 Major League draft picks on Wednesday.Senior pitcher Louis Coleman was the first Tiger to go off the board on the draft’s second day when the Kansas City Royals drafted him in the fifth round with the No. 152 overall pick.Coleman, the Southeastern Conference Pitcher of the Year, leads LSU in wins with a 13-2 record and also leads the team in innings pitched (114) and is second in ERA (2.76).
The Schlater, Miss., native was drafted in 2008 by the Washington Nationals in the 14th round.Junior outfielder Ryan Schimpf was also drafted in the fifth round at No. 160 overall by the Toronto Blue Jays.
Schimpf leads the Tigers with 19 home runs and is second on the team with a .335 average. He was drafted as a second baseman, where he started last season for LSU.
The Minnesota Twins drafted junior designated hitter Blake Dean as a left fielder in the 10th round at the No. 312 overall pick.
Dean leads the team in RBI with 65, is second in home runs with 15 and third with a .333 average.
Junior first baseman/catcher Sean Ochinko was also drafted by Toronto on Wednesday in the 11th round at No. 340 overall.
Ochinko, drafted as a catcher, has the Tigers’ fourth-best average at .330 and is third on the team with 50 RBI.TUESDAY RECAP:
The Chicago White Sox selected LSU junior outfielder Jared Mitchell with the 23rd overall pick while sophomore second baseman DJ LeMahieu was taken at No. 79 by the Chicago Cubs in the 2009 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft on Tuesday. The selection is the second of Mitchell’s career. The Minnesota Twins chose him in the 10th round at No. 306 overall in 2006 following his senior season of high school.Mitchell is fifth on the Tigers with a .325 batting average and 43 RBIs and fourth on the team with nine home runs.Mitchell also leads LSU with 35 stolen bases — the No. 2 highest single-season total in LSU history behind Rob Hartwig’s 42 in 1987.The speedster’s 69 career stolen bases is also No. 2 in LSU history behind Hartwig’s 73 from 1986-1987.In addition to a trip to the College World Series with the baseball team last season, Mitchell has also won a BCS National Championship ring with the LSU football team.The New Iberia native is the first Tiger to be selected in the first round since the Toronto Blue Jays selected former LSU infielder Aaron Hill at No. 13 overall.LeMahieu had also been selected in a previous draft, as he was taken out of high school in 2007 in the 41st round to Detroit.The Bloomfield Hills, Mich., native leads the Tigers with a .340 batting average and rode a 14 game hitting streak at one point in the season. He also has 39 RBI and 48 runs scored.Any major league team to draft an underclassman will have until August 15 to sign them to a contract.—-Contact The Daily Reveille sports staff at [email protected]