FORTH WORTH, Texas — Junior right-handed pitcher Blake Hammond became the second Santa Clara University baseball player selected in the 2024 Major League Baseball Draft Tuesday, being picked in the 15th round by the Oakland Athletics.
 
Hammond joins teammate Robert Hipwell as 2024 MLB draftees selected by Bay Area Major League teams after Hipwell was selected in the sixth round Monday by the San Francisco Giants. The two selections in one draft mark the first time in five years that Santa Clara has had multiple picks in a single year. Three Broncos were taken in the 2019 Draft. It's the first time the program has had two picks go in the top-15 rounds since 2018.
 
Hammond was a multi-time all-conference and all-academic honoree who played for the Broncos for three years from 2022-24. He was named first team all-West Coast Conference in 2024, the Broncos' first such honor in seven years. He also earned all-WCC second team honors in 2023. Hammond excelled in the classroom as well as a two-time WCC All-Academic honorable mention. He picked up two career WCC Pitcher of the Week awards (one in 2023, another in '24).
 
Hammond pitched mainly as a reliever in 56 games during his career (made eight starts). He recorded 180 strikeouts in 149 2/3 career innings pitched (10.82 career K/9 rate). Hammond went 9-7 with four saves and a 4.45 career ERA in three years. He excelled in conference play during the 2024 campaign, going 2-1 with a 2.97 ERA and 42 strikeouts in 39 1/3 innings while holding WCC opponents to a .231 batting average.
 
Santa Clara's East Bay neighbor Oakland Athletics have drafted Broncos on six other occasions before taking Hammond on Tuesday, though they haven't done it in more than 30 years when they took Randy Ortega in the 33rd round of the 1993 Draft. At least 12 former Broncos have been a part of the Oakland franchise, dating back to the organization's origins in Philadelphia. The last former Bronco to appear for the Oakland Athletics in the Majors was Mike Macfarlane in 1999, who played in 159 games for the Athletics across two seasons in 1998-99. He was drafted out of SCU in the fourth round of the 1985 Draft.