Humpal Drafted By Orioles In Ninth Round

By, Joshua Flanagan

SAN MARCOS – Former Texas State pitcher Lucas Humpal has already been drafted once, but after a record-breaking season that saw him claim school records in strikeouts and innings pitched he has been drafted again. This time, the Baltimore Orioles selected him in the ninth round with the 271^st pick of the 2016 Major League Baseball Draft Friday afternoon.

“I want to thank everybody at Texas State who have helped and supported me along the way,” Humpal said. “Hard work has brought me here, and it’s going to be hard work that takes me to the top.”

His hard work led to an improvement of 28 rounds from where he was selected last season. Humpal is the second Texas State pitcher selected by the Baltimore Orioles in recent years with the club taking Donnie Hart in 2013. He is the highest Bobcat selected since Austen Williams went in the sixth round in 2014.

With Humpal’s selection, a Bobcat has gone in the first 10 rounds in six of the last seven seasons. It also marks 14 consecutive seasons in which a Texas State player has been selected in the MLB Draft. It is the 39^th time a Texas State baseball player has been drafted since Head Coach Ty Harrington took over the program in 2000. It is the 54^th time a Bobcat has ever been selected.

In 2016, Humpal finished second in the Sun Belt Conference in innings pitched and strikeouts, notching 85 strikeouts in 108.2 innings and finished tied for fifth in the conference in wins. In 14 of his 15 appearances this year, Humpal threw four strikeouts or more, topped off by an 11-strikeout, complete-game performance on March 4 that yielded a National Player of the Week award for the Corpus Christi native.

He threw two complete games this year and has been the Friday night ace for the Bobcats the past three seasons. His freshman year, he worked his way from reliever to midweek starter to a staple in the weekend rotation, earning him Freshman All-American honors.

Humpal is top 10 in the school record books in appearances (71) and wins (21) and holds the records in strikeouts with 288 and innings pitched with 364.