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September 7 – 20, 2013
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BASEBALL FROM PAGE 1
forced him to undergo Tommy John surgery. However, Murphy’s injury didn’t stop the Toronto Blue Jays from drafting the 6-foot-4, 195-pound right-hander. Murphy admits that being taken so early was “definitely a surprise.” “Going into the draft, I wasn’t expecting anything too early, like maybe the sixth to the 10th round, or even later,” Murphy says. “But I got a call at the beginning of day two saying that I was going to go, I was shocked.” Murphy has been rehabbing for 13 months, but he says he has started throwing off the mound and should get back in a game soon. “You just have to be patient,” Murphy says. “You have to realize that it takes the whole year to rehab, you can’t rush anything or it is not going to be ready. It was tough to watch my senior year, and now I have had to watch from the bench so the main thing is patience.” Before signing with the Blue Jays for $500,000, Murphy was committed to play at the University of Oregon. “My dream has always been to be a professional baseball player and so when I got that opportunity, (I thought) why pass up that opportunity to pursue my dream as soon as possible?” Murphy says. “I just want to get my career started.” With a nice new income now, Murphy says he hasn’t gone on a big spending spree. However, there is one purchase he has in mind. “When I get home I am getting a
SIGNED A DEAL: Pitcher M.J. Villegas, who attended Seton Catholic Preparatory School, inked a deal for $100,000 with Los Angeles Dodgers. Photo courtesy of Seton Catholic Preparatory School
truck,” Murphy says. “That is it. After that, the money is going away.”
A pair of Sentinels Since its inception in 1954, Seton Catholic has only had four baseball players drafted. Two of them were this year. Matt Haggerty was the do-all man for the Sentinels last year. Not only did Haggerty bat .414 with 44 runs scored
and three home runs in his senior season, but he also dominated on the hill with a 6-0 record and a 2.12 ERA. In case that wasn’t enough, he also led Seton Catholic to a state championship in football and was named the East Valley Tribune Male Athlete of the Year. “Haggerty is just an athlete,” says Seton head baseball coach Marty Maier. “Very, very strong, very fast, great arm,
I mean he plays centerfield as good as anybody you are going to see.” Haggerty, who was taken in the last round by the L.A. Dodgers, says he will attend Grand Canyon University as an outfielder next season. “GCU has amazing coaches,” Haggerty says. “Instead of going down into rookie ball and getting smacked in the face with the huge jump (to pro ball) they can prepare me even more for the next level.” Giving up football was a difficult decision for Haggerty, who also originally committed to play defensive back at Colorado-Mesa. However, he felt it was best for his career. “It’s nice to be able to say my body will probably be in much better condition as life goes on, but I’m gonna miss football a lot,” Haggerty says. “Ultimately after talking with coaches, family and friends, we decided that baseball is the best opportunity for me to continue playing at the next level.” Haggerty’s father, Jim, played for Arizona State University and won a College World Series in 1977. Haggerty says he wanted to don maroon and gold at one point. “It’s pretty weird. I always wanted to play for ASU like he did and at the beginning of the season I was striving to possibly pull that off,” Haggerty says. “It feels great to be able to show ‘Haggerty’ on the back of a jersey at a D-1 level.” Pitcher M.J. Villegas says he and Haggerty faced off a couple times during practice over the past few seasons. “I got the best of Haggerty I would
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