Anteater Trio Called On Day Three Of Major League Baseball Draft
June 08, 2013 | Baseball
IRVINE, Calif. --- Dominique Taylor, Matt Whitehouse and Kyle Hooper had their names called on the third day of the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft.
Taylor was a 15th-round selection by the Kansas City Royals while Whitehouse was taken in the 19th round by the Cleveland Indians. Hooper rounded out the list of Anteaters after being selected in the 25th round by the Los Angeles Dodgers.
In his first season with the Anteaters, Taylor earned a spot on the All-Big West Conference first-team after tying for first on the team with 42 runs scored and leading the 'Eaters with 10 steals. The outfielder tied for ninth in the Big West, was second on the team with 14 doubles and was third among the Anteater leaders with a .309 batting average and 71 hits. He paced UCI with a 14 game hitting streak and was second with 24 multiple-hit games and nine multiple-RBI games. Taylor drove in a career-high five runs batted in against Baylor and recorded a personal-high four runs scored against Pacific.
Whitehouse was 5-6 on the mound with a 3.29 ERA. A redshirt junior, Whitehouse struck out 84 batters in 93 innings and walked 18 while giving up 34 earned runs. The southpaw held opposing teams to a .247 batting average and was ranked 48th in the country in strikeout-to-walk ratio at 4.67. He ended the regular season fifth in the Big West in strikeouts and in three years has posted a 9-6 win-loss record and 2.84 ERA to move into eighth in the UCI career records.
Hooper, a 6-5 right-hander was 1-3 with a 5.45 ERA in 2013. He pitched 39.2 innings, striking out 34 and walking 13 while allowing 24 earned runs. The redshirt junior made 18 appearances, including three starts while pitching in a pair of combined shutouts. Hooper's longest stint this year was a 6.1 inning outing against California and he struck out five while holding the Golden Bears to two runs on six hits. In three seasons, Hooper has pitched 107.2 innings with 79 strikeouts.
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