The baseball team lost two integral points in its lineup Sunday through the signing of MLB contracts by juniors Jon Berti and Ross Gerdeman.
With the 559th pick in the 18th round of the 2011 MLB Draft Tuesday, the Toronto Blue Jays selected Berti. Gerdeman was drafted the next day in the 35th round as the 1,054th overall pick by the Arizona Diamondbacks. Both players signed contracts with their respective teams Sunday morning.
While Gerdeman’s stock was essentially unknown leading up to the draft, manager Danny Schmitz said the coaching staff was fairly certain Berti would be drafted.
The former high school phenomenon had already been drafted in 2008 after his senior season in the 36th round by the Oakland A’s, but forewent the draft to play college ball at the University.
In his three seasons at Bowling Green State University, Berti has accumulated remarkable statistics. He holds the records for career triples (17), hits in a season (93), highest batting average in a season (.423), and has tied the record for most triples in a season twice (6). He finished his college career with a career batting average of .386.
Having completed his third productive season as a Falcon, Berti has decided it is time to move on to new horizons.
“I accomplished a lot in my three years at BGSU and it seemed like this was a good opportunity to start my professional career,” Berti said.
Meanwhile, Gerdeman — in being drafted — is the embodiment of a true underdog as his path towards professional ball was far less promising.
“Ross is a really remarkable story because Ross came to us as a walk on,” Schmitz said.
Gerdeman’s college career was not prolific in the beginning, as he finished his freshman season with a 10.23 ERA and the opposition hitting .374 against him. But the 6-foot 3-inch righty showed an incredible amount of improvement in his next two seasons finishing with a 5.20 ERA in 2010, and a team best 3.57 ERA in this season passed.
In his final four outings, Gerdeman posted a 1.20 ERA and 12 strikeouts in 15 innings of work, and Schmitz said he was consistently touching the low 90s with his fastball.
The call Gerdeman received last Wednesday from the Diamondbacks area scout, Nate Birtwell, was the conclusion of a lifelong goal.
“It was about 12:20 when I got the call, and when I found out it was pretty exciting, grinning from ear to ear, because I have been dreaming about it ever since I was a little kid,” Gerdeman said.
Neither player wished to disclose the amount of their signing bonus, but made sure, with encouragement from Schmitz, the teams covered their last three semesters of college if they decide later to complete their degrees.
Berti is working out at the Blue Jays spring training facility in Dunedin, Fla., and will soon be sent to either Vancouver, British Columbia or Bluefield, W.Va., to participate in one of the Blue Jays short-season leagues. Gerdeman is doing the same at the Diamondbacks spring training facility in Phoenix, Ariz., and he will compete in one of the Diamondbacks short-season leagues in either Missoula, Mont., or Phoenix.