Two more Gauchos are selected on Day 2 of the Major League Baseball Draft
Mike Klan
UC SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – Two more of UC Santa Barbara Baseball’s right-handed pitchers heard their names called on the second day of the Major League Baseball Draft Monday, with Frank Camarillo and Reed Moring both being selected. The New York Mets selected Camarillo in the 13th round and the Minnesota Twins picked Moring in the 15th, making it an even 70 Gauchos drafted since Andrew Checketts became Santa Barbara’s head coach, a figure which comfortably leads The Big West.
Camarillo is the seventh Gaucho drafted by the Mets and the first since Kevin Gelinas in 2010. A versatile pitcher, Camarillo did a little bit of everything for Santa Barbara over the last two seasons. In 20 2/3 innings in 2025, the Moreno Valley native massively improved his strikeout-to-walk ratio, issuing over twice as many K’s as free passes, while also slashing the number of extra-base hits he allowed, from 13 in 2024 to seven this season. On April 28 against San Diego, he showed his length by pitching 6 1/3 innings in relief. The righty has high-leverage experience too, having worked 1 2/3 hitless, scoreless innings in the final game of Santa Barbara’s 2024 NCAA Regional.
Moring became the ninth Gaucho selected by the Twins, joining 2022 draftee Cory Lewis in Minnesota’s organization. Despite missing time with an injury, Moring had his best year in Blue and Gold in 2025, finishing with a 2.55 ERA, 1.25 WHIP (walks and hits per inning pitched) and a .161 batting average against. He also struck out 21 hitters in his 17 2/3 innings of work. In his first outing of the year, he struck out a career-high eight hitters in 3 2/3 innings, then struck out seven over 5 2/3 one-hit innings the next week. After returning from his injury, he delivered another one-hit outing over five innings against USC.
A handful more Gauchos, including LeTrey McCollum and Xavier Esquer, are now able to sign with any of MLB’s 30 teams as undrafted free agents, which is the path that Jessada Brown and Justin Trimble took to the pros last season.
(Article courtesy of UCSB Athletics).