Wait nearly over for WNC baseball players

The waiting is almost over for current and former Western Nevada College baseball players.

The annual three-day amateur baseball draft begins Monday, and WNC coach D.J. Whittemore said this could be a big year for his program.

"I think between current and former players this could be the biggest bounty we've had," Whittemore said. "We have three to six former players that have agood chance of getting picked and between two and four current players that could go."

The best opportunities would be for Kentucky junior infielder Lance Ray, who led his team with a .356 batting average to go with 10 homers and 34 RBIs, and infielder-outfielder Jerome Pena, who hit .335 with nine homers and 49 RBIs.

Whittemore believes both players could go in the top 15 rounds.

The third former player is Brian Barnett, who just concluded his junior year at Nevada. Barnett hit .348 with 18 homers and 71 RBIs. Whittemore projects him to go around the 20th round.

Three pitchers, all of whom finished their junior seasons, also could be selected. USC's Logan Odom went 1-0 with a 7.01 ERA, while Arizona State's Josh Moody went 2-0 with an 0.75 ERA in seven appearances. James Nygren, who attended WNC for a semester and then transferred to Oregon State, could also get a call. He went 0-0 with a 7.90 ERA.

Whittemore belies it's 50-50 whether pitcher Jake Waardenburg and third baseman Kevin Taylor are chosen. Waardenburg is planning on attending UOP in the fall. He went 6-3 with a 2.31 ERA. Taylor, a sophomore -to-be, hit .328 with three homers and 41 RBIs.

Dyllon Nuernberg, who was 1-0 with a 1.72 ERA, and Jeremy Gendlek, who was 8-2 with a 3.27 ERA, also have a good chance to get picked.

Despite posting a 10-1 record this past season, Whittemore isn't sure ace pitcher Kramer Champlin will get drafted, and that's puzzling to the WNC coach. Champlin has signed a letter of intent with Arizona State.

"He's a long shot," said Whittemore, who said that scouts weren't wild about Champlin's velocity. "Besides, what kid wouldn't want to play ball at Arizona State."