Pitchers headline Anteaters’ class

Five pitchers who UC Irvine baseball coach Mike Gillespie said have the capability of having an immediate impact, highlight a group of 10 players who signed letters of intent to play for the Anteaters, beginning in 2010.

“With a great emphasis on pitching, we hit the jackpot with two premier left-handers in Beau Wright and Paul Strong,” Gillespie said of the seniors at Los Alamitos and Marina high schools, respectively.

Including right-handers Kyle Hooper (Saugus High), Evan Brock (Ayala High) and Thomas Emanule (Santa Margarita High), Gillespie said the pitching prospects are “advanced and prepared to pitch in key roles at UCI as early as their freshman year.”

Also among the eight high school and two junior college players committing were Orange coast College third baseman Drew Hillman and Jon Hurst, a outfielder and catcher at Cypress College.

Others include Pierce Bily, a third baseman at Orange Lutheran High, Chris Carlson, a left-handed hitting outfielder at Chino Hills High, and Drew Sandler a catcher at Simi Valley High.

Wright was an AFLAC All-American, the Sunset League Pitcher of the Year and ranked the 30th best high school prospect by Baseball American in 2008. As a junior, he threw two no-hitters, was 10-1 with a 1.07 earned-run average and struck out 114 in 78 2/3 innings. He tossed three shutouts for the Griffins, for whom he threw one no-hitter as a sophomore.

Strong, a first-team All-Sunset honoree and Marina’s team MVP as a junior, was 7-2 with 82 strikeouts in 59 innings in 2008.

Hillman earned Southern California All-American honors as a freshman at OCC, when he hit .350 with three homers and 44 RBIs. He slugged .515 for the Pirates and 20 of his 57 hits went for extra bases.

Hurst hit .366 to earn All-Orange Empire Conference recognition in 2008, when he slugged .505.

Sandler earned second-team All-CIF recognition while helping Simi Valley capture the CIF Southern Section Division I crown. He hit .343 with four homers, 13 doubles and 25 RBIs and slugged .608 for the Pioneers.

Bily was team MVP and a first-team All-Trinity League performer as a junior at Orange Lutheran. He hit .304 with three homers in 2008.

Gillespie said Bily will compete for a starting job right away.

Carlson was a first-team All-CIF performer as a junior, when he hit .340 with nine home runs. Of his 57 hits, 27 were for extra bases.

— From staff reports