ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFKnights.com) — For the eighth-straight year, the UCF baseball program had one of its players taken in the MLB First-Year Player Draft as senior shortstop Dylan Moore was selected by the Texas Rangers with the 198th overall pick in the seventh round Tuesday.
Moore became the sixth Knight to be selected in the first 10 rounds in the last five years, following Beau Taylor (5th, 2011), Joe Rogers (5th, 2012), Roman Madrid (7th, 2012), Ben Lively (4th, 2013) and most recently Eric Skoglund (3rd, 2014).
Overall, the Knights have now had 89 players drafted by the MLB in the program's history, 32 in the first 10 rounds.
The Yorba Linda, Calif., native paced the Knights with a .333 average with 80 hits and 45 RBI. Moore compiled a .542 slugging pct. with 14 doubles, three triples and 10 homers.
The shortstop drew 28 walks and stole 14 bases in 16 attempts. Moore tallied a .949 fielding pct. with 108 putouts and 170 assists.
Moore delivered a team-high 23 multi-hit and 13 multi-RBI games as a senior. He registered a .323 average in his two years at UCF with 76 RBI and 11 homers after transferring from Cypress College.
For head coach Terry Rooney, Moore becomes the 20th player drafted since arriving in Orlando in the summer of 2008. The shortstop is the 15th player chosen in the first 10 rounds that had been coached by Rooney.
Moore becomes the first UCF player in school history to be drafted by the Rangers.
Seniors pitcher Zach Rodgers, first baseman James Vasquez and third baseman Tommy Williams are also UCF players waiting to hear their name called in the 40-round draft.