Campbell’s Allan Winans has been selected by the New York Mets in the 17th round of the 2018 Major League Baseball Draft. The Mets drafted the redshirt-senior right-handed pitcher with the 500th overall pick.

Winans is the first Camel to be drafted since 2015 and the 53rd Campbell player selected in the MLB Draft in program history.

A native of Bakersfield, Calif., Winans was voted the 2018 Big South Pitcher of the Year following a dominant senior season in which he led the conference with a 2.73 ERA over 82 and one-third innings. His 96 strikeouts were the fourth-most by a Campbell pitcher in the school’s Division I era (1978-present), while his 10.49 strikeouts per nine innings set a new program record.

Winans is the ninth Camel to be taken in the MLB Draft since 2009, joining Ryan Hamme (31st round, Chicago White Sox, 2009), Jake Smith (48th round, San Francisco Giants, 2011), Matt Marksberry (15th round, Atlanta Braves, 2013), Ben McQuown (30th round, Oakland Athletics), Ryan Thompson (23rd round, Houston Astros, 2014), Cedric Mullins (13th round, Baltimore Orioles, 2015), Steven Leonard (23rd round, Colorado Rockies, 2015) and Heath Bowers (24th round, Oakland Athletics, 2015).

Campbell swept Big South regular season and tournament titles on the way to 35-26 record in 2018, good for CU’s winningest season since 2014. The Camels racked up a program-record 21 victories in league action and had eight players named to all-conference teams.

(Campbell media services provided the basis for this report.)