Liberty second baseman Will Wagner was selected during the final day of the 2021 Major League Baseball Draft on Tuesday.
The Houston Astros selected the infielder during the 18th round with the 538th pick of the draft. Wagner’s father Billy, a pitcher, was also drafted by the Astros in the 1993 MLB Draft. He spent the first nine years of his career with the organization.
Yesterday, Flames left-hander Fraser Ellard was chosen in the eighth round by the Chicago White Sox.
With the selection of the two Flames in this year’s draft, Liberty has now had 72 players taken in the MLB Draft during the 48-year history of its program. The Flames have had at least one player chosen in each draft since 2000, except last year’s draft which was limited to five rounds due to COVID-19.
Wagner was selected to his second ASUN All-Conference first team, this season. The second baseman was a unanimous selection both this year and in 2019.
The infielder hit .333 with a team-leading 52 RBI and 32 runs scored in 2021. In 53 games, all starts, he had 70 hits of which 16 were doubles, three triples and seven home runs. He posted a .399 on base percentage and a .538 slugging percentage. He was named the ASUN Player of the Week for April 19.
Wagner collected 20 multi-hit games and led Liberty with 14 multi-RBI contests in 2021. The Crozet, Va., native had a 10-game hitting streak and reached base safely in 16 consecutive games at one point during the season. In the field, he had an outstanding .989 fielding percentage, committing two errors in 176 chances.
Wagner led the ASUN Conference in RBI. He also finished among the conference leaders in batting average (6th), hits (3rd), doubles (tied-4th) and slugging percentage (8th).
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Chris Graham
