Milwaukee native Alec Marsh selected in compensation round of the MLB draft by Kansas City Royals
Alec Marsh, a right-handed pitcher for Arizona State University and product of Milwaukee Reagan High School, was taken with the 70th overall selection in the Major League Baseball draft Monday by the Kansas City Royals, a pick in the "compensation B" round that followed the second round.
The 6-foot-2 Marsh was 9-3 with a 3.17 ERA this season with the Sun Devils, notching 92 strikeouts and 33 walks.
Marsh, 21, was regarded as one of the five best Wisconsin talents in his class in high school, but he took a leap forward between his first and second year at ASU. As a freshman in 2017, he worked 21 innings, allowing 19 earned runs (8.14 ERA) and walking 11 batters with just 13 strikeouts. But last year, he posted a 3.89 ERA over 71⅔ innings, and his strikeout totals went up significantly this season.
Marsh led Reagan to the 2015 spring baseball state tournament after pitching his team to one of the most shocking upsets in state history, a 5-0 win over top-seeded Arrowhead in the sectional final. Reagan lost to River Falls in the first round at state, 10-0.
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Arrowhead, which had just switched from summer ball and was competing in its first spring season, had lost just one game heading into the sectional final (a 2-1 loss to Kenosha Indian Trail) and possessed a roster littered with future Division I players, including Jeff Holtz (Indiana), Dom Clementi (Michigan), Nate Brown (Florida and eventually Arizona) and Jack Bredeson (Michigan). That doesn't even count first-team all-state outfielder Johnny Duranso and second-team catcher Mike Bauer. But Marsh struck out 10 batters and allowed only five hits in the stunning win.
JR Radcliffe can be reached at (262) 361-9141 or jradcliffe@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JRRadcliffe.