GREENVILLE, N.C. (WNCT) — He came back for another season at East Carolina University and was as good as any Pirates pitcher we’ve seen.
Now, it’s going to be a long weekend of waiting for ECU star Gavin Williams as he awaits a call from a team that will pick him in the Major League Baseball Draft.
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He has been told by Major League Scouts that he could go anywhere in the first round, between picks four and 30. They are gaudy numbers as most projections have Williams somewhere between pick No. 20 and No. 30 in the first round.
The highest an ECU player has ever been picked in the draft is No. 9, when Jeff Hoffman was selected by the Toronto Blue Jays in 2014. Williams has talked with a number of teams over the last several days and could have left ECU after last season was cut short due to COVID-19.
He gambled and there’s nothing he said he would have done differently.
Meanwhile, there’s another Pirate who could go in the first round on Sunday. Connor Norby, the American Athletic Conference Player of the Year is expected to hear his name called early in the MLB Draft. Some projections have him going late in the first round, too.
Norby won the 2021 Bobby Bragan Collegiate Slugger Award recently.
There’s a good chance other ECU players will get drafted as the draft stretches 20 rounds over three days. Click the above video to see his interview with WNCT Sports Director Brian Bailey about the draft and his expectations.
