NEW ORLEANS - A pair of Sun Belt Conference baseball standouts were selected on Tuesday in the 2015 2015 MLB First Year Players' Draft.
UL Lafayette's Blake Trahan was selected 84th overall by the Cincinnati Reds while Ben Taylor of South Alabama was selected in the seventh round (201st overall) by the Boston Red Sox.
Trahan is the 16th player under Robichaux to be drafted in the top 10 rounds of the MLB Draft. Darrin Babineaux was the highest pick under Robichaux as he was taken in the second round by the Los Angeles Dodgers as the 50th overall pick in 1995.
Trahan had one of the most storied careers at Louisiana earning All-America honors in all three seasons. He was named both a Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American and a Perfect Game Second Team All-American in 2013. Trahan added to his list of honors in 2014 earning First Team ABCA All-American honors as well as being tabbed to the second team on both the Baseball America and Perfect Game lists. This season, Trahan was named a Louisville Slugger Third Team All-American.
A career .331 hitter, Trahan was named the Sun Belt Player of the Year this season after earning 2014 Sun Belt Tournament Most Outstanding Player honors a year ago.
A native of Kinder, La., Trahan was a defensive standout making exceptional plays on a daily basis. Trahan went from making 13 errors in 2013 to only nine errors in over 300 attempts this season.
Trahan recorded over 100 RBI in three seasons with the Cajuns and his 239 hits ranks top 5 all-time in program history. He also scored 155 career runs to go with 37 doubles, three triples and ten homers and recorded a career .431 on base percentage.
Taylor, a right-handed pitcher, was a first-team all-Sun Belt Conference selection as a relief pitcher this past season after finishing 6-3 with a 1.48 ERA and seven saves in 25 relief appearances. Taylor struck out 68 batters and issued just 13 walks in 42 2/3 innings pitched. In 13 appearances in SBC contests, he went 4-2 with three saves and a 1.12 ERA and struck out 44 batters against six walks in 24 innings.
Taylor finished his senior campaign ranked fifth in the conference in saves and tied for fifth in wins, while helping the Jaguars post the league's top ERA (3.22), opposing batting average (.242) and most strikeouts (474).
USA has had at least one pitcher selected in the last three MLB Drafts, and he is the first right-handed pitcher taken since Dylan Stamey was selected by the Colorado Rockies in the 2013 draft.