BOWLING GREEN, Ky. Western Kentucky University third baseman Wade Gaynor was selected by the Detroit Tigers in the third round of the 2009 Major League Baseball First-Year Players Draft late Tuesday night. Gaynor was the ninth selection of the third round, the 89th pick overall, and in a season of firsts, the Hawesville, Ky. native became the highest draft pick in the Hilltoppers' 90-year history.
As the three-day event continues on Wednesday and Thursday, several more Hilltoppers hope to hear their names called as nearly 1,500 players will be drafted when the 50 rounds are complete.
WKU has had just three other players selected in the top five rounds since the draft began in 1965. Greg Raymer was drafted in the fifth round by San Diego in the 1982 draft, Paul Jackson was a fourth round selection by Cincinnati in 1989, and Steve Stemle was a fifth round pick by St. Louis in 1998.
Gaynor is the fifth WKU player in history to be tabbed by the Tigers organization, joining Jim Pickens (1950), Mike Williams (1981), Andy Baldwin (2003), and Jordan Newton (2006). Tyler Townsend, first baseman with FIU, was the only other Sun Belt Conference player to go on day one of the draft (first 111 picks over three rounds), as the Baltimore Orioles selected the junior with the 85th pick.
Gaynor's amazing junior season led the Hilltoppers to unprecedented success. The 6-4 product of Hancock County High School batted .371 with 20 doubles, four triples, and 25 home runs. In guiding WKU to a share of its first-ever Sun Belt Conference Regular Season Championship, the program's second-straight NCAA Tournament appearance, and advancing to the winner-take-all game of the 2009 NCAA Oxford Regional, also an historic first for WKU, Gaynor tied a school record and finishing fourth in the nation scoring 83 runs. He also drove in a league-leading 78 RBI, the 16th best total in Division I.
A Sun Belt All-Conference First-Team selection, Gaynor became the first player in WKU history to hit 20 home runs and steal 20 bases in the same season. He slugged .781, had an on-base percentage of .457, and an impressive .940 fielding percentage while manning the hot corner.
Ranked in the top eighth in the Sun Belt in 12 different offensive categories, Gaynor was also fifth in the nation in home runs, second in total bases, 11th in slugging, and 31st in hits with 93.
On the biggest stage of his career, Gaynor shined in 2009. In five NCAA Tournament games at the Oxford Regional against the nation's best competition, Gaynor hit .333 and slugged .810 with three home runs and a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage earning him a spot of the NCAA Regional All-Tournament team.
For his three-year career at WKU, Gaynor batted .349 and slugged .617 in 177 games played. He ranks in the top five all-time at WKU in runs scored (fourth, 178), hits (fifth, 247), doubles (third, 51), home runs (third, 43), and RBI (fifth, 156).
WKU closed out its historic season with the program's first national ranking since 2001, tabbed 23rd in the latest release of the College Baseball Top 30 poll. WKU finished their record-setting season at 42-20 and came within two innings of advancing to the program's first-ever NCAA Super Regional.
In notching the program's first 40-win season in 21 years, and fifth overall, WKU posted a 21-8 mark in league play to earn a share of the 2009 Sun Belt Conference Regular Season Championship, a first in the program's 26-year affiliation with the conference.
Earning the program's first at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, WKU went 3-2 in the Oxford Regional, equaling in three days what the program had accomplished in terms of number of postseason wins in the previous 89 years of Hilltopper baseball. WKU knocked off second-seeded Missouri twice as well as rallied for a remarkable 10-9 win over eighth-ranked Ole Miss to force a winner-take-all NCAA Regional Championship game.
In a performance for the ages, the Rebels' Drew Pomeranz and WKU's Matt Ridings battled each other pitch-for-pitch, taking a 1-1 game into the eighth inning before Ole Miss came out on top 4-1 in front of a crowd of 8,255 at Oxford-University Stadium.
