Gonzaga’s Brett Harris, Ernie Yake selected on second day of MLB Draft

Gonzaga baseball third baseman Brett Harris and shortstop Ernie Yake were selected in the MLB draft on Monday.

Harris was a seventh-round pick, 218th overall, by the Oakland Athletics, and Yake was a 10th-round pick, 309th overall, by the Minnesota Twins.

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Harris batted .355, tied for the team lead with six home runs and added a team-best 43 RBIs as a junior.

Yake, a Brooks Wallace semifinalist (given to the nation’s best shortstop) hit .333 with 38 runs, 29 RBIs during his junior season.

The Harris pick is the highest a Bulldog has been drafted since 2010 with pitcher Marco Gonzales going 19th overall to the St. Louis Cardinals.

It is the first time since 2017 that GU has had multiple players go off the board within the first 10 rounds. That draft had pitchers Wyatt Mills and Eli Morgan go in the third and the eighth, respectively.

Both former Zags were offered free-agent deals at the conclusion of the COVID-shortened 2020 season, but they decided to return to school to bolster their resumes.

Two more Bulldogs will be eagerly awaiting Tuesday’s selections, including second-team All-American Alek Jacob and catcher Tyler Rando.

If one of the two do get drafted, it will mark the sixth season in a row in which the Bulldogs have had at least three draftees (not including the 2020 COVID-altered draft, which only had five rounds compared to the normal 40).

Former Bulldogs Mac Lardner and Nick Trogrlic-Iverson signed with the Cardinals as free agents after the 2020 season.

In 2020, MLB and the MLBPA agreed on a 20-round draft as the league still reels from the pandemic.

The MLB draft continues on Tuesday at 9 a.m.

A livestream is available on MLB.com.