Jake Bird Selected in Fifth Round to Colorado
June 05, 2018 | Baseball
NEW YORK โ UCLA senior right-handed pitcher Jake Bird was selected by the Colorado Rockies as the 156th overall selection in the fifth round of the Major League Baseball Draft on Tuesday. Bird is the first Bruin taken in the 2018 MLB Draft.
Bird, a native of Stevenson Ranch, Calif., was named an All-Pac-12 selection after leading the conference in ERA during the regular season and finished the year with a 7-4 record and a 2.18 ERA. The senior finished the year top-10 in the Pac-12 in innings pitched with 111.2 and earned runs allowed with 27. Bird recorded a 6-3 mark in Pac-12 play with a 2.38 ERA in a conference-best 72.0 innings. Bird set a career-high with 8.0 innings pitched three times this season including tossing his first two career complete games on the road at Arizona and Oregon State. He also set a career-best with eight strikeouts against Oregon on May 18. Bird recorded 14 quality starts this season out of 16 starts.
Bird ends his career at UCLA with a 3.13 ERA in 71 appearances, including 28 starts, and accumulated 14 wins. He threw 227.0 innings in four years for the Bruins and totaled 130 strikeouts.
Bird is also a Google Cloud Academic All-District 8 team honoree this season, joining teammate Daniel Rosica as the first UCLA players to earn the distinction since Ryan Deeter in 2013, and is a two-time Pac-12 All-Academic second team selection.
In 14 season as UCLA's head coach, John Savage has produced 89 MLB draft selections, including 33 players being drafted within the first 10 rounds. Bird marks the program's 271st all-time MLB draft selection.
In addition, two NLI signees for the Bruins were drafted on the opening day of the draft on Monday as infielder Matt McLain was taken 25th overall to Arizona and Cole Roederer was selected 77th overall by the Chicago Cubs.
The final day of the MLB Draft will begin on Wednesday at 9 a.m. PT with rounds 11-40 and can be seen live on MLB.com.
