Gardner selected in 21st round by Pittsburgh Pirates

Posted: Jun 06, 2018

PITTSBURGH – Carson-Newman pitcher Will Gardner was selected in the 21st round, 624th overall Wednesday afternoon by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 2018 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft.

"I'm extremely humbled and honored to be drafted by the Pirates," Gardner said. "I've been dreaming about this day for a long time."

A day after his teammate Brett Langhorne was taken in the 10th round, Gardner becomes the 20th person and 21st selection (John Rohde was taken twice during his C-N career) in the history of the C-N baseball program and eighth player during the Division II era, since 1994.

List of @NCAADII schools with multiple @MLBDraft (all have two) picks through 21 rounds:@CNBaseball @NSU_Baseball @UT_Baseball
— Michael Wottreng (@MWottreng) June 6, 2018

This year marks the fourth time in the history of the school that Carson-Newman has had two players selected in the same draft class. It had been 11 years since the Eagles had a player drafted when in 2007 a pair of hurlers were picked. Steve Cishek went in the fifth round to the Marlins and Matt Teague was an eighth-round pick of the San Diego Padres.

The other seasons that the Eagles produced a pair of picks came in 1984 when pitchers Kevin Helton and Rohde were taken in the seventh and 14th rounds respectively and 1997 when outfielder Julio Guzman went in the 37th round and Derrick Lankford went in the 42nd round.

"It's a well-deserved honor for Will and his family," Carson-Newman coach Tom Griffin said. "He has been a great leader on and off the field. Will is a tough, hard-working, intense player. He started last year and was successful. We moved him to the closer role because it was best for our team and he did it no questions asked because it was best for our team. He is a team guy!"

Pittsburgh uses a drafted selection on a C-N player for the fifth time, more than any other MLB team. Lankford was the most recent Pirates pick going in the 42nd round in the 1997 draft. Others that were taken were Scott May (1996) in the 41st round, Helton (1984) in the seventh round and Paul Bostic (1971) in the 16th round.

Carson-Newman is one of three schools in Division II to produce multiple draft selections through 21 rounds of this year's draft – all have two. Tampa and Nova Southeastern are the other two.

Here's a look at what the @Pirates are getting from @willgardner34, Pittsburgh's 21st round @MLBDraft selection. Three strikeouts on 10 pitches. pic.twitter.com/acQnF2kdTR
— C-N Athletics (@CNathletics) June 6, 2018

The flamethrower that touches the mid-90s with his fastball was a 2018 second-team All-South Atlantic Conference honoree as a reliever after earning a spot on the 2017 SAC All-Tournament team as a starting pitcher.

For his career, the righty appeared in 38 games with seven wins, 12 saves, five complete games and 122 strikeouts and 44 walks in 118 2/3 innings pitched. He posted a 7-8 overall record with a 4.63 earned run average.

After spending two seasons as Tennessee Tech, Gardner transferred to Mossy Creek in 2017 where he was the team's Friday starting pitcher as a junior. He led the team in wins, six, innings pitched, 83 2/3, strikeouts, 67, and complete games, five – good for fifth-most in the history of the program.

In the 2017 SAC Baseball Championships that saw C-N reach the finals, the hurler threw 247 pitches across two starts registering a 1-1 record with a 1.80 earned run average with 10 strikeouts in 15 innings pitched as opponents hit just .220.

Transitioning to the team's closer in 2018, Gardner racked up 12 saves that led the nation through the end of the regular season. It was a number that led the SAC and finished fifth in the country, two behind the nation's leaders. It is a number that tied John Butler, 1999, for the second-most in school history to rank three behind the high mark.

Overall, his 25 appearances ranked 28th in Division II. Eighteen of those games resulted in scoreless efforts out of the bullpen. Eight of his first nine trips to the mound this season were tallied as a save and the other was a victory.

In his final season in the Orange and Blue, Gardner struck out 55 and walked 14 in 35 innings. He faced 162 batters on the year, punching out 34 percent of those hitters.

Assuming Gardner (Bristol Pirates) and Langhorne (Danville Braves) start the year and play all of 2018 in the Appalachian League, they will be opponents twice. Danville hosts Bristol on July 1-3 while traveling to Bristol for the final regular-season series of the year, August 27-29.