Three former UNCG baseball players continue pro careers in 2006

GREENSBORO, NC – Three former UNC Greensboro baseball players are continuing their professional careers as the 2006 baseball season began this past week.

Brian Moehler enters his 11th season of Major League duty and second with the Florida Marlins in 2006. He garnered his first start of the season on Wednesday, April 5 and suffered the loss in a 6-5 setback at Houston. He is slated to start the Marlins home opener on Tuesday, April 11 against San Diego.

Moehler, who was inducted into the most recent UNCG Hall of Fame class in 2005, owns a 56-69 all-time record at the Major League level. He enjoyed his best season in 1998 when he posted a 14-13 mark with a 3.90 ERA for the Detroit Tigers. He was the first UNCG baseball player drafted when he was selected in the sixth round by the Tigers in 1993.

Right-handed pitcher Chris Mason started his first full season of professional baseball on Thursday night with the Visalia Oaks, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays Class A affiliate in the California League.

Although projected to be a starter in 2006, Mason took the mound with two outs in the fourth inning last night against the defending league champion San Jose Giants. He pitched 1.1 innings, giving up just a fifth inning single, but later picked the runner of first base.

The Rays No. 10 prospect according to Baseball America, Mason is expected to lead a strong Oaks’ pitching staff after dominating New York-Penn League and then Midwest League hitters last season. In 19 relief appearances, Mason had an earned run average of 1.87 with 30 strikeouts in 34 innings.

Mason was selected 56th overall in the second round of the 2005 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft. The Cherryville, NC native was named the Southern Conference Pitcher of the Year by the SoCon Sports Media Association and was also a first team selection by the league’s head coaches in 2005.

Jarrett Santos began his second season with the Greensboro Grasshoppers on Thursday night in front of an opening day crowd of 9,110. The Hoppers set an all-time single game attendance record at First Horizon Park. He entered the game in the sixth and worked two scoreless innings, allowing one hit and had one strikeout in helping Greensboro to a come-from-behind 11-7 victory over Hagerstown.

Santos, a native of Tulare, CA, was drafted in 2004 by Florida in the 34th round. He played two seasons for the Spartans after transferring from Reedley College. He was named first team All-SoCon in 2003 after posting an 11-5 record with a 3.30 ERA, with 106 strikeouts in 101 innings pitched. He followed that up with a 9-3 mark and was named second team all-conference in 2004.

The Grasshoppers play in the South Atlantic League and are the Class A affiliate of the Florida Marlins.

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