Baseball

Pitchers Matt Portland and Brandon Magallones were chosen in the MLB draft Wednesday.

Portland, a junior southpaw, went in the 17th round (519th overall) to the Kansas City Royals, and Magallones, a senior right-hander, was picked in the 24th round (712th overall) by the Chicago White Sox.

Portland started 14 games for Northwestern this season, tossing one shutout, tallying a save and recording a 4.04 ERA over 89 innings. Magallones was the Wildcats’ workhorse, posting team-highs of 16 starts and four wins, and striking out 67 batters, just one less than Portland’s team-leading mark of 68.

Senior centerfielder Kyle Ruchim, who told The Daily in February he planned to declare for the draft this year, was notably absent from the board. The St. Louis Cardinals selected Ruchim in the 39th round of last year’s draft, but Ruchim instead decided to return to NU for another season. He was easily the Cats’ best player, leading the lineup in batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage, but apparently didn’t garner any interest from MLB teams this year.

Portland and Magallones became the 66th and 67th players drafted under retiring coach Paul Stevens. At least one NU player has been chosen in 17 of the past 18 drafts.

Email: bpillote@u.northwestern.edu
Twitter: @BobbyPillote