LAKEWOOD, CO- For the first time in program history, CCU baseball has had one of their players selected in the Major League Baseball draft. Former Cougar Wyatt Crenshaw heard his name called by the Arizona Diamondbacks with the 565th pick in the 19th round on Tuesday.
The Gilbert, Arizona native was drafted by his home state team after a stellar career at CCU and a strong final year of college baseball at Arizona State. He will now play for the Single A affiliate for the Diamondbacks, the Visalia Rawhide in California. Crenshaw is ready to get to work with his new team and play with new teammates.
"I was very excited, not only was it the home team but it was right at the end of the draft at crunch time, I was hoping something would happen and thankfully something did," Crenshaw said. "Excited to get back to playing again, get back to Arizona and see how they run things over there."
Wyatt is not a complete stranger to the organization, as his father Ken Crenshaw is the Director of Sports Medicine and Performance for the Diamondbacks. Crenshaw will look to work with his dad one day, which would require making it through the minor leagues and onto the Dbacks roster.
Baseball is nothing new to the Crenshaw family, as all three of the Crenshaw brothers played collegiate baseball. Older brother Wacy played at Colorado Mesa University, while younger brother Dustin plays for Grand Canyon University. Wyatt got the chance to take on his younger brother earlier this year, and the Sun Devils won bragging rights with a big victory.
Crenshaw saw a big jump in production from his sophomore season to his record-setting junior year at CCU. He credited his coaches and a lot of offseason work that allowed him to take a big step forward.
"The work I put in the offseason, I was really dedicated. I thought I could be a lot better so that whole offseason I was super dedicated."
After breaking the Cougars single season records for batting average, RBI, triples and doubles during his junior year, Crenshaw took his talents to the prestigious Arizona State baseball program. There he was pushed to become part of a long legacy of players to go to the majors from the program.
"They preached a lot about representing the school and the history they have. They have the most draft picks and major league players ever, so they always said that you need to represent the history of our school and all the people that came before you. It's not about you, it's about what this school means," Crenshaw said.
Wyatt spent four years in the Colorado Christian baseball program, and he pointed his success back to his coaches with the Cougars.
"My mentors are still Coach Lib [Andrew Liberty] and Coach Paul [Paul Koss] over at CCU. I still talk to them all the time and they're still my coaches. I was talking to them yesterday on the phone," said Crenshaw.
Wyatt is the first player ever drafted to the MLB from CCU baseball, but he does not believe he will be the last.
"When I went in there I wasn't any different than any player they have right now. It just takes time and is a long road, but if you really focus and believe it, you can do a lot more than you ever thought you could," Wyatt said.
With the single A season well underway, Crenshaw will look to make an immediate impact with his new team in Visalia.
"I want to be able to contribute, hop in there and not skip a beat. Consistently get hits, show that I can contribute and be a winning player and get a lot better this offseason after the end of the season," Crenshaw said.
As Crenshaw takes the next step in his baseball journey, he is filled with gratitude for his path to get there and gives a lot of credit to his mentors.
"Thank you to everyone over there [at CCU], especially thank you to Paul and Lib for all the work they put in as coaches," Crenshaw said. "They are just as good of coaches as I've seen at any level and I'm really thankful for them. They've got a lot of good players right now and they're making good strides every year and they'll have a really good program in the near future."
As Wyatt heads to play for the Visalia Rawhide, the CCU athletics community will be cheering him on every step of the way. Congratulations to Wyatt Crenshaw on being drafted to the Arizona Diamondbacks and we are excited to see your future in baseball!
