Two more Montgomery County talents were selected on Day 3 of the Major League Baseball draft Tuesday afternoon.
Former The Woodlands standout and University of Houston right-handed pitcher Josh Ekness was taken by the Miami Marlins with the 353rd pick in the 12th round.
Ekness, 21, went 2-4 with a 6.45 ERA and 73 strikeouts to 38 walks in 67 innings for the Cougars this season. The 6-foot-4, 225-pounder gave up 67 hits. He started 12 of 21 games.
Ekness led Houston in strikeouts and innings pitched.
According to Perfect Game, Ekness was the ninth-best high school prospect in Texas coming out of The Woodlands, boasting a fastball that reached 95 miles per hour.
He went undrafted in the truncated five-round 2020 MLB Draft and signed with Lamar University, where he pitched for two years and appeared in 19 games with 14 starts, compiling 57 strikeouts to 44 walks in 43 2/3 innings.
Right-handed pitcher James Ellwanger, fresh of helping lead Magnolia West to its first state championship in early June, was picked by the Washington Nationals with the 555th overall pick in the 19th round. He had a tremendous senior season for the Mustangs, going 11-1 with an 0.93 ERA, 141 strikeouts to 32 walks and a .128 batting-average against in 83 innings.
Ellwanger is signed to play for Dallas Baptist University. The 6-foot-5, 195-pounder was No. 107 on MLB.com’s Top 250 Draft Prospects list and told The Courier in an interview last weekend he would consider going pro if it made sense financially.
“It’s more on the money part of things,” Ellwanger said. “If the money’s right and they want to make that investment in me and put that effort forth to make me decide, that’ll be the case. If not, I’ll just head to DBU and tear it up there.”
If Ellwanger, who turned 19 years old two months ago, goes the college route, he would be eligible for the draft again as a sophomore in 2025 when he turns 21.
High school graduates are eligible for the draft. If they bypass, they are not eligible to be drafted until after their junior year of playing at a four-year university or they turn 21.
Overall, three players with Montgomery County ties were chosen in this year’s MLB Draft. Aside from Ekness and Ellwanger, Dallas Baptist right-handed pitcher Zane Russell, formerly of Porter High, was selected by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 10th round on Monday.
