Cal Poly’s Daudet and Kovach selected on second day of MLB Draft
Mike Klan
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. – First baseman Zach Daudet, whose walk-off 11th-inning home run against Utah Valley sent Cal Poly to the NCAA Eugene Regional championship finals last month, became the Mustangs’ 50th selection in the first 10 rounds of the Major League Baseball Draft on Monday.
The Houston Astros chose Daudet as the 306th overall pick, a spot with an approximate value of $188.900.
The two-day 20-round draft ended Monday in Atlanta with one more Mustang selected, redshirt junior left-hander Luke Kovach, in the 19th round by the Toronto Blue Jays.
Cal Poly has had at least one player drafted in all but one of its 31 NCAA Division I seasons. No Mustang was selected in 1998. Current Mustang head coach Larry Lee has mentored 40 of the 50 former Cal Poly draftees in the top 10 rounds over 23 seasons.
Daudet, who was hitting as high as .418 in mid-April, closed out his 2025 campaign with a .360 average, 15 doubles, nine home runs, and 26 RBIs in 53 games (52 starts). He committed just three errors in 397 fielding chances at first base.
His season included a midseason stretch of 15 games in which he went 27-for-45 (.600) with seven doubles, three home runs, and 13 RBIs. He also had another stretch in which Daudet hit .500 (13-for-26) in five games near the end of the regular season.
Daudet, who never redshirted, produced 18 multiple-hit games, including a pair of four-hit contests.
In 37 games as a junior, Daudet hit .202 with four doubles, four home runs, and 21 RBIs. Before the 2024 season, Daudet transferred to Cal Poly from Regis University in Denver, Colo., where he hit .345 as a sophomore and .322 in his freshman campaign.
Daudet is a 2021 graduate of Clairemont High School in San Diego.
Kovach, who missed the entire 2024 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery in December 2023, pitched in five games, all Mustang victories, in 2025. He earned the victory against UC Riverside on May 17, allowing a run on two hits with a season-high six strikeouts.
Kovach also struck out five over 2 1/3 frames in the aforementioned win over Utah Valley on June 1.
He pitched two seasons at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria, compiling a 3-2 record and 3.87 ERA with 111 strikeouts over 74 1/3 innings in his freshman and sophomore campaigns combined. Kovach is a 2021 graduate of Cabrillo High School in Vandenberg Village outside of Lompoc.
Jack Collins plans to sign with the Texas Rangers as an undrafted free agent. A 2021 graduate of Santa Margarita Catholic High School, Collins clawed his way to success through persistence and reinvention. After redshirting at CSUN to focus on academics, he reignited his career at Saddleback College in 2023, batting a scorching .376 and leading the Bobcats to an Orange Empire Conference championship.
Long Beach State gave him a brief Division I look in 2024, but his big break came with one final transfer, this time to Cal Poly, where he faced the task of replacing 2024 MLB Draft pick Ryan Stafford behind the plate.
Collins didn’t just fill the void – he dominated. Bursting onto the scene in 2025, he opened his Mustangs career with a 14-game hitting streak (.404, 3 HR, 19 RBI), launched walk-off homers in upsets over powerhouse programs Texas A&M and Oregon State, and finished as Cal Poly’s home run leader (13). His breakout season earned him recognition as a Buster Posey Award semifinalist and All-Big West Second Team selection.
Head Coach Larry Lee didn’t hold back when talking about these three players: “I’m very happy for Zach, Luke, and Jack. We were fortunate to have them in our program. Now they get a chance to realize their dreams of playing professional baseball.”
(Article courtesy of Cal Poly Athletics).