Baseball: Tiedemann and Owen Taken in the MLB Draft

Huntington Beach, Calif. - Ricky Tiedemann and Noah Owen were drafted in this years Major League Baseball (MLB) draft. 

Tiedemann was taken in the third round (91st overall) by the Toronto Blue Jays, this is the highest draft pick in Golden West College's program history. He had quite the winding path to draft day as the pandemic played a huge role in him attending GWC after two transfers put him on the mound at Fred Hoover Field. In seven starts for the Rustlers, Tiedemann went 2-1 over 38 innings pitched with a staggering 60 strikeouts recorded. His best start of the season was his final one for Golden West, Tiedemann threw a complete game 3-1 win over Cypress while striking out 13 Chargers. Heach Coach Drew Ramos described Tiedemann's lone season at GW with "he got better with each start, and that improvement was reflected when the Blue Jays made him the highest drafted JUCO player in the country. We were fortunate to have him on the team, and we are proud that he is a part of the Rustler family."

Noah Owen was selected in the 14th round (425th overall) by the Chicago White Sox. His path was also a bit winding as he has hopped around a bit in his short collegiate career. He first signed with the University of San Diego, where he pitched in 13 games (three starts) to a 5.91 ERA. Owen transferred to the University of California at Santa Barbara for his sophomore season in 2020, and due to the coronavirus truncation of the season pitched just one inning.

Moving on to Golden West this season, Owen nearly doubled his career college output to date, with a team high 40 innings over seven games (six starts), going 2-2 with a 3.15 ERA. While control was a huge issue for Owen in his career to that point (19 walks, 19 Ks), the righty cleaned that up with the Rustlers in 2021, throwing 49 Ks to just seven walks.