Kevin Metz

Junior Ricky Romero may have come up short last Saturday in his start against Arizona in the Fullerton Regional, but he certainly came up big in the first round of the 2005 Major League draft.

The Titan’s left-handed ace was chosen as the sixth overall pick by the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday in the First-Year Player draft. He is the tenth player all-time from Fullerton to be picked in the first round.

“It was a dream come true, something I dreamed of all my life,” Romero said. “It was incredible to be recognized as the best pitcher in the draft.”

As the Friday starter for the Titans this season, Romero has a 12-5 record with a 2.95 ERA and has struck out 132 batters in just 125 innings of work.

“We saw the first five picks and then Toronto came along,” said Romero, who said he woke up very anxious around 7:30 am to tune in to MLB.com for the selections. “Then they put Ricky Romero on the line.”

“The best thing was my family was there with me when it happened,” he added. “I am still walking in the clouds right now.”

Romero was the first pitcher selected in this year’s draft. A consistent All-American, Romero was recently named one of 30 players to the College Baseball Foundation’s 2005 honors team.

He is also a semi-finalist for the Brookes Wallace Award, an honor given to the best collegiate baseball player in the nation and last season, to his former-teammate Kurt Suzuki.

“We are elated that Ricky got the chance,” said teammate Ronnie Prettyman, who was himself selected in the tenth round by the Seattle Mariners. “You really can’t say enough about the guy. I am just happy he is on our team and we don’t have to face him.”

The starting lineup from Arizona State will be handed that task this Friday when the Super Regionals get underway Friday night at Goodwin Field. Romero said his focus is still completely with the Titans.

“My top priority is to bring another championship to [the Titans] and I am completely focused on my start this Friday against ASU.”

Other Titans selected in the draft on Tuesday included Junior right fielder Sergio Pedroza (third round by Los Angeles), center fielder Bobby Andrews (seventh round by Baltimore), senior left-handed pitcher Ryan Schreppel (eighth round, Arizona), and Ronnie Prettyman (tenth round, Seattle),

“I am happy that it is over and that we don’t have to deal with it any more,” Prettyman said.

While he said he is excited for his teammates who were selected, he admitted to being equally disappointed by the names he didn’t see picked from the Fullerton roster.

“There are a lot of players on our team that could have been drafted and weren’t,” Prettyman said. “We have good enough players and play really good baseball out here. It was really kind of a slap in the face to Titan baseball.”

To date, forty players from past Fullerton teams have seen time at the big league level, the most recent call-up being Shane Costa for the Kansas City Royals last month.