CT ball players selected in MLB draft

(WTNH) -- Some local baseball players are making it big, getting selected in the Major League Baseball draft.

Matt Carasiti of Berlin, who has helped St. John's reach the NCAA Super Regionals, was the first player with an area connection taken in the MLB First Year Player Draft on Tuesday, going in the sixth round (198th overall) to the Colorado Rockies.

Carasiti, a 6'3", 200 lb. right-hander, was MVP of the Big East Tournament, and he was the winning pitcher Monday as St. John's defeated North Carolina to advance to the Super Regionals. St. John's has a three-game series at Arizona this weekend for the right to go to the College World Series.

Carasiti is 7-5 with a 3,98 ERA in 18 games, 14 starts. He has 64 strikeouts in 83 2/3 innings.

UConn’s LJ Mazzilli was selected by the Minnesota Twins with the second pick of the ninth round (280 overall). Mazzilli, who hit .334 with 203 hits during his three-year career at UConn, went much lower than many anticipated before the draft. From Greenwich, he is the son of former major-league player and manager Lee Mazzilli.

The Yale University baseball team saw two of its pitchers selected in the second day of the 2012 Major League Baseball Draft, with Pat Ludwig (Okemos, Mich.) going to the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 10th round and Nolan Becker (New York, N.Y.) going to the Cincinnati Reds in the 11th round on Tuesday.

Additionally, the Colorado Rockies selected another relief pitcher on Tuesday in the 2012 MLB Draft. In the 15th and final round of Day 2, the Rockies took Connecticut Huskies right-handed pitcher Scott Oberg with the 468th overall pick.

Oberg was 5-0 in 22 relief appearances and finished the season with a 0.99 ERA. He had nine saves and struck out 36 batters in 36.1 innings.