NEW YORK - UC San Diego's Justin Donatella was selected Wednesday by the Arizona Diamondbacks to open the 15th round of the 2015 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft. The right-handed pitcher out of Saugus (Saugus HS), who completed an extraordinary, breakout junior season of college baseball in May, was the 436th overall pick.
Donatella went 9-3 in 14 starts over the 2015 campaign. His 1.74 ERA, league-best 111 strikeouts, and .186 opposing batting average, all are new single-season records for UCSD's Division II era, since 2001. He walked only 17 in his 88.0 innings pitched, and surrendered a run in back-to-back outings just once, in his last two. Donatella had his ERA at under 1.00 for a majority of the season, as low as 0.28 at one point on March 6, at 0.55 heading into his final regular-season appearance, and at 0.78 entering the NCAA West Regional with only eight runs allowed, seven of them earned. His longest of several shutout streaks was 34.1 innings early on, which included the first 31.2 frames of CCAA play.
His performance this past season garnered Donatella a significant amount of hardware. He became the first National Pitcher of the Year in program history, earning that distinction from the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA). Donatella was a consensus All-American, West Region Pitcher of the Year and first-team All-West Region pick according to all three entities who deliver postseason awards in NCAA Division II college baseball, the NCBWA, Daktronics, Inc., and the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA). He made the NCBWA All-America First Team, with second-team nods on the Daktronics and ABCA/Rawlings All-America ballots. He was also the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Most Valuable Pitcher, landing on the All-CCAA First Team.
"We're very excited for Justin," said UCSD head coach Eric Newman. "He's worked extremely hard to put himself in this position. Not everybody is able to experience being drafted, but he has certainly earned it."
Donatella still has one year of college eligibility remaining. The signing deadline for draft choices is Friday, July 17.
Donatella is the program's highest draftee in over two decades, since 1989. That year, Kyle Abbott went to the then-California Angels ninth overall in the first round, after spending two seasons (1987-88) at UCSD and transferring to Division I Long Beach State. Bob Natal, who was part of the second-ever UCSD Athletics Hall of Fame class last fall, was previously chosen straight from the Tritons by the Montreal Expos in the 13th round in 1987.
The most recent Triton to be chosen was Dillon Moyer, who started all 50 games at shortstop in 2013 before going to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 38th round. Moyer is currently with the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, the Dodgers' Class A Advanced affiliate. The last UCSD pitchers to have their names called were another pair of former right-handed standouts in Tim Shibuya (Round 23, Minnesota Twins) and Guido Knudson (Round 28, Detroit Tigers) in 2011. Both are also still in professional baseball, with the clubs that drafted them. Knudson was promoted to the Triple-A level for the first time on May 10, as a new addition to the Toledo Mud Hens, while Shibuya is a member of the Double-A Chattanooga Lookouts.
Donatella was the fourth draft pick out of the CCAA this season. Cal Poly Pomona had right-hander Cody Ponce selected in the second round (No. 55) by the Milwaukee Brewers on Monday night, and catcher Christian Kelley by the Pittsburgh Pirates earlier Wednesday in the 11th (No. 337). In between, Cal State Dominguez Hills right-hander Kevin Brown was selected by the Dodgers Tuesday in the ninth round (No. 282).
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