Western Carolina University

June 9, 2011

Cullowhee, N.C. - Two Western Carolina players and two incoming baseball recruits were selected on the second and third days of the 2011 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft conducted this week. Junior right-handed pitcher Kyle Deese and senior right-handed pitcher Matt Benedict, as well as incoming recruits Jeremy Null and Tyler Powell were drafted during the 50-round event.

Deese was taken in the 23rd round with the 710th overall pick by the St. Louis Cardinals while Benedict was selected with the 902nd overall pick in the 30th round by the Pittsburgh Pirates. RHP Null was a 37th round, 1,113rd pick by the Seattle Mariners while RHP Powell was taken in the 46th round and the 1,404th pick by the Texas Rangers.

All told, 22 players from the Southern Conference were drafted with 18 pitchers among of those picked.

According to available records, Deese is the third Catamount to be selected by the St. Louis Cardinals organization, joining Tom Malchesky (12th round, 314 pick) in 1988 and Blake Murphy (42nd round, 1,265) back in 2008. Benedict is the fourth Catamount to be taken by the Pirates all time joining Wayne Tolleson (12th round, 304) back in 1977, Alex Tolbert (22nd, 662) in 1997 and Brian McCullen (38th round, 1,130) in the 2006 draft.

Deese, who began his collegiate career at Clemson before transferring to WCU from Walters State prior to last season, made 13 relief appearances in 2011. The hard-throwing right-hander struck out 22 against 15 walks in 16.1 innings, recording at least one strikeout in all but three of his season appearances with WCU winning six of the 13 games in which he saw action.

The Inman, S.C., native made the most of his final two seasonal appearances for WCU, tossing 2.2 innings of one-run, one-hit relief in a 16-inning road victory over Furman before pitching a career-long four and a third in the epic 20-inning win over top-seeded Elon in the SoCon Tournament. Against the Phoenix, Deese struck out six while keeping the Phoenix off the board in helping the Catamounts knock-off the tournament's top seed.

From reports published by the Asheville Citizen-Times and from Deese, the reliever had talks with the Tampa Bay Rays about being drafted in the 15th round, but that they could not reach terms prior to the pick passing. Deese was later taken by the Cardinals eight rounds later.

Benedict finished his four-year career at Western Carolina with an 11-8 overall record with nine victories coming during an All-SoCon, All-State junior season. He made a combined 58 career appearances on the mound with 31 coming as the starting pitcher. The St. Petersburg, Fla., product struck out 174 batters during his career to rank 18th on the school's career ledger.

Last season, Benedict started 13 games and paced the squad in both innings pitched at 85.1 and strikeouts with 70. He ranked 10th in the SoCon in total innings thrown while his 70 K's ranked him tied for 10th in the league and his 26 strikeouts looking placed him sixth among all SoCon pitchers.

With both Null and Powell drafted, it marks the second-straight season that WCU has had an incoming pitcher selected as Michael White (Walters State) was taken prior to donning the Purple & Gold.

Additional WCU Draft Notes:
* Western Carolina had players selected in the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft for the seventh-straight season - and for the 15th-time in the past 16-years missing just 2004 during that same span;

* Western Carolina has had three players taken inside the first 100 picks all time, headlined by Rick Adair with the 53rd pick of the third round by the Seattle Mariners in the 1979 draft - WCU's highest all-time ... Brad Tweedie (3rd round, 92nd pick by Cincinnati Reds in 1993) and Jason Beverlin (4th round, 93rd pick by Oakland Athletics in 1994);

* It was 19th time since 1977 that Western Carolina had multiple picks in the MLB First-Year Player Draft.

Western Carolina MLB Draft Picks

Western Carolina Recruits (Signed a National Letter of Intent)

Southern Conference MLB Draft Picks