GREENSBORO, N.C. – UNC Greensboro (UNCG) baseball standouts
Brendan Collins and
Corey Rosier were selected during the 2021 Major League Baseball Draft Tuesday afternoon.
Rosier was drafted by the Seattle Mariners in the 12th round with the 354th selection. Collins was drafted by the 2019 World Series champion Washington Nationals in the 17th round. He was the 503rd selection.
They are the first Spartans drafted since 2019 when Chad Sykes was selected by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
Rosier, who was named All-SoCon First Team, started all 52 games for UNCG this past season. He earned SoCon Player of the Week honors on March 8. Rosier led the Southern Conference with 75 hits and four triples.
The 5 foot, 10 inch redshirt sophomore was tied for the SoCon lead in runs scored (59) and RBIs (51). He was second in the SoCon in total bases (128), fifth in stolen bases (17) and on-base percentage (.604), tied for sixth in home runs (12), and seventh in batting average (.354). Rosier led UNCG with 13 multi-hit games.
He also had a stretch in which he reached base safely in 20 consecutive games from Feb. 23-March 27. The Waldorf, Maryland native had a memorable game against Elon in which he had four hits and six RBIs on March 7. In the series opener against Elon on March 5, he hit two home runs. Rosier had three hits in games against Elon, Virginia Tech, Samford, and East Tennessee State along with two triples in a game against High Point.
Collins, a 6 foot, 4 inch righthanded pitcher from Olney, Maryland, had a solid campaign for the Spartans.
Collins finished the season with a 3-3 record and a 5.54 earned run average. He struck out 51 batters in 50.1 innings. Collins collected a season-high eight strikeouts twice against VMI on March 27 and VMI on May 21. He won consecutive starts against North Carolina A&T on March 9 and nationally-ranked Virginia Tech on March 16.
He limited Virginia Tech to two runs over 5.2 innings and threw four innings to earn the winning decision against Gardner Webb. Collins had six strikeouts each against North Carolina A&T on March 9 and The Citadel on April 23. He made 16 appearances and had 14 starts on the mound. Collins was tied for fourth in the SoCon in strikeouts looking (26) and tied for sixth in starts (14).
