UNM’s junior starting pitcher Toller Boardman and junior infielder Sam Haggerty will test their luck in the professional baseball realm, forgoing each of their senior seasons as Lobos. Boardman was selected in the 22nd round (670th overall) by the Detroit Tigers, while Haggerty was selected by the Cleveland Indians as a 24th rounder (724th overall).
Head coach Ray Birmingham was unavailable for comment, but he said in a statement that the program he runs at UNM sets out to get student-athletes into the major leagues.
“That’s 26 guys that’ve been drafted since I’ve been at UNM, and that’s what we do here,” Birmingham said. “You want to give them a degree and you want to give them the opportunity to play pro ball. That’s important.”
Although Haggerty missed 30 games with a strained oblique, his 29 appearances at second base proved to be enough for the Cleveland organization to select the middle infielder. He hit .311 in his third season with the Lobos, scoring 25 times and collecting 13 RBIs in his short season.
He was one of four co-captains on UNM’s ball club, finishing his career with a total of 140 runs during his tenure as a Lobo.
“School will always be there, but my body and ability to play the game could (fail),” Haggerty said. “I had an opportunity to go fulfill playing on a big-league field. I knew the moment I got drafted I was going to take that opportunity.”
Haggerty said receiving the phone call by a major league baseball team was an amazing experience with too many emotions to describe.
“When you start playing baseball really young and start playing t-ball, it’s always something you want to achieve,” Haggerty said.
Boardman said his road to getting drafted by the Tigers was a rocky one, having played on three different teams in his collegiate career.
“UNM was by far my favorite year in college,” Boardman said. “We weren’t exactly a power conference team, but there were no egos on the team and everyone got along great.”
Boardman’s bumpy road to a major league organization started in high school, after he broke his back in his senior year. The Friday night starter for New Mexico continued to play baseball despite the scrutiny and questions surrounding his ability to play the sport again.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
“Plenty of doctors told me that my baseball career might be over,” Boardman said. “I decided to opt out of surgery and wear a back brace for three months, and then go through extensive rehab three months after that.”
Boardman put together a solid season during his only season in Cherry and Silver, going 9-3 with a 3.46 ERA. He led the Lobos in starts (15), strikeouts (65), and innings pitched (101.1).
Next season’s question marks for UNM’s ball club don’t end at the departures of two junior starters. Two incoming freshmen have both received offers from major league teams out of high school, and assistant/pitching coach Dan Spencer has informed UNM that he will be departing to join the Washington State staff.
Third baseman and pitcher Donnie Sands was taken in the eighth round and is expected to sign a contract with the New York Yankees; incoming freshman outfielder Cole Anderson has not yet reached a decision on whether he will sign with the Colorado Rockies after being drafted in the tenth round.
Birmingham told the Albuquerque Journal that he has just started the process to come up with a replacement for Spencer after the two spent the past three seasons together.
“Dan enjoyed his time here and he made us better,” Birmingham said in the article, “but he’ll make a lot more money (at Washington State) and he’ll be in a league where six teams make it to NCAA regionals instead of just one.”
Liam Cary-Eaves is a sports editor for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at assistantsports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @Liam_CE.
