Herd senior Ryan Kiel was taken in the 37th round of the MLB draft, joining junior Kevin Shackelford and recruit Aaron Blair of Las Vegas. The latter two were picked in the 21st round, so the dilemma begins (and Jeff Waggoner sweats).

Tyler Gatrell could well land a free-agent deal, so he could end up in the minors this summer as well… 

Chuck Neinas was rehired by Conference USA to guide the league through the next minefield of realignment. He has received considerable credit for shepherding Marshall into C-USA, a marriage that wasn’t automatic, contrary to popular belief.

Here is the list of Conference USA players taken in the MLB draft (incoming recruits are NOT included):

Rd.	 Player	   Pos.	  School	  MLB Team
3	Rick Hague	SS	Rice	        Washington Nationals
3	Rob Segedin	3B	Tulane	        New York Yankees
8	Kyle Roller	DH	East Carolina	New York Yankees
10	Blake Kelso	SS	Houston	        Washington Nationals
13	Michael Goodnight RHP	Houston	        Cleveland Indians
14	Diego Seastrunk	C	Rice	        Cleveland Indians
16	Ryan Fraser	RHP	Memphis	        New York Mets
16	Chris Wallace	C	Houston	        Houston Astros
17	Preston Claiborne RHP	Tulane	        New York Yankees
18	Jimmy Comerota	IF	Rice	        Arizona Diamondbacks
20	Chad Mozingo	OF	Rice	        Washington Nationals
20	Luke Stewart	1B	UAB	        New York Mets
21	Scott Copeland	RHP	Southern Miss	Baltimore Orioles
21	Owen Dew	  RHP	UCF	        Cleveland Indians
21	Kevin Shackelford  RHP	Marshall	Milwaukee Brewers
23	Drew Martinez	OF	Memphis	        New York Mets
23	Shane Brown	OF	UCF	        New York Yankees
25	Mike Ojala	RHP	Rice	        Florida Marlins
26	Ty Stuckey	LHP	Houston         Cincinnati Reds
26	Chris Duffy	OF	UCF	        Philadelphia Phillies
31	Stephen Sultzbaugh OF	Rice	        Arizona Diamondbacks
32	Todd McInnis	RHP	Southern Miss	Oakland A's
33	William Kankel	LHP	Houston	        Milwaukee Brewers
34	Dustin Harrington  SS	East Carolina	Chicago Cubs
36	Jared Rogers	RHP	Rice	        Florida Marlins
37	Ryan Kiel   	  LHP	Marshall	Seattle Mariners
38	Nick Graffeo	LHP	UAB	        Kansas City Royals
38	Jared Ray       	RHP	Houston	        Minnesota Twins
39	Ryan Woolley	RHP	UAB	        Texas Rangers
41	Seth Maness	RHP	East Carolina	Florida Marlins
48	Devin Harris	OF	East Carolina	San Francisco Giants

Here to cover the Herd baseball team for the final time at Appalachian Power Park. The finishes its last home C-USA series Sunday… As you may have seen, I wrote an article for Friday morning on how the Herd is hitting C-USA pitching better, and I’ll be darned if it didn’t hammer the Southern Miss starter in a 16-10 victory. I continue to be impressed with this team.

In Monday’s column, I’ll throw out ticket sales dollar figures for football and basketball … and perhaps an update on Darius Watts, though I was stiffed in an attempt to contact him this week. We’ll see…

While we wait for Marshall’s (thankfully) late-starting spring football, it’s baseball time at Appalachian Power Park. The Herd has three-game Conference series the next two weekends, against Rice and Memphis.

As you probably know, Rice brings the big, big bats into town. The good news: The Owls aren’t No. 1 like they were two years ago when the beat the Herd 26-6 in the Friday game. Still, the Owls are No. 11, 13 or whatever (there are way too many college baseball polls).

Coach Jeff Waggoner likes his pitching staff, and he did land a pretty good closer in former South Charleston/Hurricane star Arik Sikula. I’m going to assume the Herd will do better than getting outscored 52-16.

Went back and looked at the stories from those games. For the series, the Owls hit .433, smacking 55 hits, 11 home runs, three of those grand salamis. The Herd’s ERA was 14.76.

Gulp! The Owls were 22-2 in C-USA that season. It will be interesting to see if the Herd can give the Owls a run this time around.

And I don’t mind seeing a little baseball. I’ll be at the yard Friday and Saturday night…