There is perhaps no greater achievement for an amateur baseball player than being selected in the Major League Baseball Draft.
So one can imagine how North Carolina baseball pitcher Rodney Hutchison Jr. felt on Tuesday afternoon when his name was called in the sixth round as the 187th overall pick to the New York Yankees.
Hutchison, a junior from Mason, Ohio, is the lone Tar Heel player to be picked in the first two days of the 2018 MLB Draft.
The 6-foot-6, 239-pound right hander has made 59 appearances in three seasons for UNC. His most successful campaign came as a sophomore, when he posted a 7-4 record to go along with a modest 4.14 earned run average. Hutchison was a stabilizing presence in the Tar Heel bullpen, making 30 appearances as a reliever and starting just once.
This year, he has been asked to take a different role, starting ten times for North Carolina. His best performance came in a midweek start against North Carolina A&T on March 13. Hutchison spun a shutout while striking out seven batters and allowing only five base runners on the day.
He appeared twice in the Chapel Hill Regional this past weekend, striking out three batters in two innings of work.
But Hutchison’s best numbers came in the Cape Cod League, a summer circuit for college prospects who want to show off for major league scouts.
While playing in the Massachusetts-based league in the summer of 2017, Hutchison threw 30 innings and posted a splendid 0.60 ERA. He also struck out 21 batters and compiled two wins for the Chatham Anglers.
It is likely that the junior will sign with the Yankees, the winners of a record 27 World Series, but before he does, he has some unfinished business — winning the Super Regional against Stetson to get his team back into the College World Series for the first time since 2013.
