The Seattle Mariners selected VCU Baseball redshirt sophomore infielder Tyler Locklear with the 58th overall pick in the second round of the 2022 MLB Draft Sunday night.
Locklear is the 54th player to be drafted out of VCU in the school's history, and the Rams' highest draft pick since Justin Orenduff was a first-round pick by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2004.
Locklear and Orenduff are two of five former Rams to be selected in the first two rounds, joining Bill Smith (Yankees, 1984 first round), Brandon Inge (Tigers, 1998 second round), and Matt Burch (Royals, 1998 first round).
Locklear, a two-time All-American, put up eye-popping numbers as he led the Rams to back-to-back Atlantic 10 championships and etched his name into the VCU record book. His 20 home runs and 78 RBIs are both single-season program records, while his 37 career homers are tied for the most in VCU history, and his .704 career slugging percentage is the highest ever by a Ram.
The Abingdon, Md., product also ranks in the top 10 in VCU history for a number of single-season marks, including runs (77 – 2nd), doubles (25 – T2nd), batting average (.402 – 5th), walks (47 – 6th), and hits (90 – T7th). His .361 career batting average also ranks as sixth-best in program history, while his 152 career RBIs are tied for ninth-most.
The slugger was the first player in the history of the conference to win both A-10 Player and Rookie of the Year in the same season in 2021, and was the Most Outstanding Player at the A-10 Championship in 2022. He was a First Team All-Atlantic 10 and First Team All-Region selection in back-to-back years, in addition to being named the 2021 VaSID All-State Rookie of the Year and the 2022 VaSID All-State Player of the Year.
In 2022, the Rams went 42-20, winning their second straight and third total A-10 title since joining the league in 2013, which was their eighth conference tournament championship overall. That booked VCU's ticket to its 13th NCAA Tournament appearance, where it was a 3-seed at the Chapel Hill Regional.
VCU extended a 17-game win streak into the Regional final with wins over Georgia and No. 10 North Carolina. After starting the year 3-8, the Rams finished the season 39-12 over the final 51 games. It is the eighth consecutive full season that VCU has won 34 or more games, and the seventh time in program history that the Rams have hit the 40-win plateau.
Seattle's President of Baseball Operations, Jerry Dipoto, was a third round draft pick out of VCU in 1989.
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