Chino Hills pitcher Bailey Falter goes to Phillies in fifth round

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.

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Two locals make USA Baseball Under-18 Team Trials

Two local athletes were among the 44 chosen nationwide to participate in the USA Baseball 18-under Team Trials from Aug. 23-29 in Houston, Tex. A final 20-man roster will be announced at the end of that event.

Juniors Bailey Falter of Chino Hills and Peter Lambert of San Dimas, both pitchers, were selected after their showing the past weekend after the gold medal game of the Tournament of Stars in Cary, N.C.

The event is held annually and serves as the primary selection vehicle for the 18U National Team Trials roster. Out of the 108 athletes that attended the tournament, 34 have been named to the trials roster.

Those 34 are joined by ten additional players that were named to trials through the 2013 17U National Team Identification Series and 2013 17U National Team Development Program.

Both Falter and Lambert are first-team All-Inland Valley selections this year. Falter, who has committed to UC Santa Barbara, was 8-2 with an 0.72 ERA in 68 innings while Lambert, who has committed to UCLA, was 11-2 with an 0.59 ERA in 83 innings.

Left-handed pitcher Kyle Robeniol of Los Osos is one of nine alternates. He was 6-4 with a 3.21 ERA in 57 innings.

 

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