Chino Hills pitcher Bailey Falter is the latest local player to be taken in the Major League Baseball first-year player draft when he was chosen by the Philadelphia Phillies in the fifth round (144th overall pick).
Falter, a 6-foot-4 left-hander, helped the Huskies to the CIF Southern Section Division 2 title game. where they lost to Mission Viejo 3-1 on Saturday.
He went 6-2 with a 1.20 ERA in 75 and two-third innings. He registered 97 strikeouts and only walked 11.
Falter earlier signed with UC Santa Barbara.
“It’s definitely a dream come true. Not everyone gets this chance,” Falter said. “It’s very exciting.”
Falter says he wasn’t paying particular attention to the draft selections. He was hanging out with some friends when he got nearly two dozen text messages in the span of a 10 minutes.”
He added that the Yankees, Phillies and Padres were the teams that had shown the most interest.
“I really thought it was going to be the Yankees though,” he said.
It has been an impressive showing for locals in the draft thus far. Claremont native Dillon Tate was the No. 4 overall pick out of UC Santa Barbara to the Ranger while San Dimas pitcher Peter Lambert went with the second pick in the second round (44th overall) to the Rockies.
Cody Ponce, out of Damien HS and Cal Poly Pomona was the third player chosen on Monday, going to the Brewers in the second round (55th overall pick).
Also today, left-handed pitcher Justin Jacome, out of Redlands East Valley and UC Santa Barbara, was taken by the Marlins two picks after Falter’s name was called.