It’s a dream come true for most young athletes to be selected by their hometown teams, and for left-handed pitcher Kyle Freeland, he was lucky enough to see that dream realized Thursday night.
Freeland, a 21-year-old Denver, Colo., native, was selected by the Colorado Rockies with the No. 8 overall pick in the 2014 Major League Baseball draft. The southpaw was already sitting down when Bud Selig announced his name, but that didn’t stop him from falling into his dad’s arms as his friends and family celebrated wildly around him.
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It was a priceless reaction from Freeland, who went 10-2 with a 1.90 ERA at the University of Evansville as junior this season, striking out 128 over 99 2/3 innings for the Purple Aces.
“Leading up to it, I didn’t know how I was going to react,” Freeland said, via The Denver Post. “But it was just a roller coaster of emotions when they called my name. I just had to grab my dad and give him a hug.”
