Darby and Durfee selected on final day of 2024 MLB Draft

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - UC Santa Barbara Baseball's excellent left-handed hitting duo of Zander Darby and Brendan Durfee both heard their names called on the third and final day of the 2024 Major League Baseball Draft. The San Francisco Giants picked Darby, a Palo Alto native, in the 12th round, and the San Diego Padres took Durfee in the 14th round.

With six players selected, the Gauchos have the largest draft class in the state of California this year and the second-biggest in the West behind only Oregon State. Additionally, no school had more players selected in the first 10 rounds than Santa Barbara's four. The Gauchos have now seen 67 players selected since Head Coach Andrew Checketts arrived prior to the 2012 season, leading The Big West during that span.

Darby became the 13th Gaucho selected by the Giants, going to San Francisco with the 358th overall pick on Tuesday. Darby ranked 151st on MLB's Top 250 Draft Prospects list, having caught fire late in the season. He hit .467 in the Gauchos' final nine regular season games, the hottest streak in his red-hot month of May that saw him post a .391 average. He started the season on fire too, hitting home runs in each of his first three games.

Durfee continued the Gauchos-to-Padres pipeline when San Diego took him with the 420th overall pick, making this the fifth draft in the last six years and the fourth in a row that the Padres have selected a Gaucho. A transfer from Division III Cal Lutheran, Durfee impressed in his first season of Division I baseball, finishing second in on-base plus slugging (OPS) among Big West left-handers, behind only the conference's player of the year. His 11 doubles, nine home runs and 35 RBIs were all career highs.

(Article courtesy of UCSB Athletics)