One went in the draft. Another signed as a free agent.
Either way, Green River Community College has two of its top baseball players on the way to the pros.
Christian Scholl, a standout pitcher who came to the Gators from Tacoma’s Stadium High, signed last weekend with the Los Angeles Angels after being tabbed by them in the eighth round of Major League Baseball’s first-year player draft on June 5.
Ryan Voelkel, who wielded one of Green River’s big bats this past spring, went undrafted, but signed with the Atlanta Braves just a couple days later.
After a solid spring for both of them in Auburn, Scholl and Voelkel now will play on opposites of the country. Scholl was assigned to the Angels’ Pioneer League rookie league team in Orem, Utah. Voelkel is off to Florida, where he’ll play with the Braves’ Gulf Coast rookie league team at Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex.
“Both kids are extremely intelligent, which is one of the indications I know that they will be successful,” Gators coach Matt Acker said. “They’ll utilize their resources and continue with school, and they can figure things out on their own. And they’re talented.”
Scholl was the 259th overall pick, the fourth player from Washington selected, and the first NWAACC player chosen in this year’s draft. He went 5-3 this spring with 85 strikeouts and a 2.84 earned-run average.
In two years with Green River, Scholl was a combined 12-6 with a 2.57 ERA and a school-record 166 strikeouts.
“Eighth (round) was higher than projected,” said Scholl, who would have headed to Washington State University to continue his career had he not signed with the Angels. “I’d heard a bunch of things from Coach Acker, anywhere from mid-draft to higher. With this, I was very happy.”
Ditto for Acker.
“We’d heard stuff, but you can’t count chickens,” Acker said of the pre-draft speculation. “The upside is he’s tremendously competitive. … The last couple years, he has learned how to control his emotions. The fire is still there, but it’s under control.”
Scholl was the 32nd player in Green River history to be taken in the major league draft.
Voelkel is coming off a season during which he hit .319, hit a school-record 10 home runs, drove in 36 runs and built a .624 slugging percentage.
Voelkel received the call from the Braves last Saturday afternoon while he was warming up to play a game with his summer team, the Kitsap Blue Jackets of the West Coast Collegiate Baseball League.
“Right off the bat, I thought maybe they were trying to get me for cheaper since I wasn’t drafted,” Voelkel said. “Then, I thought, ‘You know what, this could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.’ You never know what’s around the next corner.’”
Voelkel, a Kentlake High grad who also played football and basketball while in Falcons colors, will bring to Florida not only some big talent, but also some big size – he’s 6-foot-6 and 230 pounds, having dropped from roughly 280.
“He’s more than ready,” Acker said. “He has just matured physically and mentally over the last couple years. Ryan was a phenomenal talent at Kentlake. He just didn’t have the body style. Now, he has thinned out a little bit, and has become a lot tougher.”
