UConn and Fairfield have players selected on final day of Major League Baseball Draft

The third day of the Major League Baseball Draft saw more players selected with ties to Connecticut.

Three UConn players, two Fairfield University players, and a prep player from The Frederick Gunn School were taken on Tuesday in the 12th through 20th rounds.

UConn had Kyler Fedko (12th round, Minnesota Twins), Caleb Wurster (15th round, Miami Marlins) and New Haven native Andrew Marrero (18th round, St. Louis Cardinals) selected.

Drafted from Fairfield were Shelton’s Trey McLoughlin (16th round, New York Mets) and Watertown’s Justin Guerrera (20th round, New York Mets).

The Gunn School’s Michael Sirota was selected in the 16th round by the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Marrero graduated from Wilbur Cross, where he was a four-time All-SCC selection, and was named to the GametimeCT First Team All-State and was the New Haven Register All-Area MVP as a senior.

He set the school record with 242 career strikeouts and senior year was 6-3 with a 1.60 ERA and 88 strikeouts in 521/3 innings.

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Marrero just completed his second season with the Huskies, appearing in 18 games with 28 strikeouts while walking just eight in 211/3 innings, pitching to a 4.22 ERA and holding opposing batters to a .225 batting average.

McLoughlin struck out 32 batters in 232/3innings at Fairfield this season, but missed five weeks with shoulder bursitis. He returned at the end of Fairfield’s season, making four appearances over the final month, including one against Arizona State in the NCAA tournament.

Prior to the draft, he pitched 11 scoreless innings for Falmouth in the Cape Cod League this summer.

“It’s an incredible achievement to be drafted by the New York Mets,” McLoughlin said in a press release. “It’s been a difficult past year for me especially with the pandemic and our season getting canceled to finally get back to normal this year only to miss a few weeks with an injury. I’ve had to face quite a bit of adversity over my four years at Fairfield but I’ve managed to find a way past it all. I’m unbelievably excited to begin my pro career.”

Guerrera hit .340 with a 1.094 OPS and 45 RBIs, tying Fairfield’s single-season record with 13 home runs, capped off by a mammoth three-run, go-ahead homer against Arizona State in the NCAA Regionals.

Guerrera was chosen First Team All-MAAC after leading the conference in homers (13), RBIs (45), runs scored (45), and slugging percentage (.685).

Guerrera ended his season batting .421 (8-for-19) in Fairfield’s four games in the NCAA Regionals.

At Watertown, he was a two-time CHSCA All-State and All-NVL pick.

“The initial thought (after being drafted) was everything paid off and everything happened for a reason,” Guerrera said in a press release. “But then you immediately come back to reality and know there’s a lot more work ahead and the ultimate goal is to make it all the way to the top and being a professional baseball player in the major leagues.”

Fedko joins teammate Pat Winkel as being selected by the Twins, making them the first UConn teammates to be drafted by the same team in the same draft since the Milwaukee Brewers took Doug Elliot and Elliot Glynn in the 2011 draft.

Fedko, a NCBWA First-Team All-American and the Big East Player of the Year, led the Huskies in batting average (.396), hits (78), RBIs (53), and runs (57).

Wurster appeared in a team-high 25 games for UConn, sporting a 2.41 ERA with 52 strikeouts over 41 innings. He held opponents to a .207 ERA as the Huskies lefty closer.

Sirota, the great-nephew of former Yankee Whitey Ford, played shortstop at The Gunn School — formerly known as The Gunnery — and has committed to Northeastern University.

Overall, there were 12 players with state ties selected over 20 rounds. East Catholic’s Frank Mozzicato went seventh overall to the Kansas City Royals while the Braves took Wake Forest pitcher and Avon Old Farms graduate Ryan Cusick with the 24th pick.

The second day of the draft saw four state players picked: Yale’s Rohan Handa, UConn’s Winkel and Ben Casparius, and Quinnipiac’s Colton Bender.

Three of those players are state natives: Casparius (Westport), Winkel (Orange) and Bender (Lebanon).