aSACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sacramento State senior right-hander
Ethan Lay was taken in the sixth round by the Minnesota Twins while junior outfielder
Erick Dessens was a 13th-round selection by the Cleveland Guardians as the 2026 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft wrapped up on Sunday (July 12) in Philadelphia, Pa.
The duo become the 33rd and 34th Hornet baseball alums to either be drafted or to sign a professional contract with a Major League club under Head Coach
Reggie Christiansen since 2011, and marks the 20th consecutive season that a Sacramento State baseball player has been drafted or signed since 2007.
Taken with the 168th overall pick in the sixth round, Lay became the first Hornet to be taken in the top 10 rounds since the duo of Travis Adams (6th round, Minnesota) and Scott Randall (7th round, Arizona) in 2021 and the seventh Hornet taken in the top 10 rounds under Christiansen. It is also the earliest a Sacramento State player had been selected since Rhys Hoskins was taken No. 142 overall in the fifth round by Philadelphia in 2014.
He is the fifth Hornet to be drafted by the Twins along with pitcher Tanner Mendonca (2013, 17th round, No. 500); pitcher Tyler Beardsley (2016, 16th round, No. 483); pitcher Travis Adams (2021, 6th round, No. 189); and infielder
JP Smith (2025, 17th round, No. 509).
An All-Western Athletic Conference first-team selection as a senior in 2026, Lay was a two-time WAC Pitcher of the Week and a semifinalist for the College Baseball Foundation Pitcher of the Year award. In 16 starts, Lay finished 5-3 overall with a 3.78 ERA, striking out 93 and walking only 16 in 88.0 innings while holding opponents to a .263 average.
He led the WAC in innings pitched and fewest walks allowed while ranking among the league's top 10 in ERA (4th), opposing batting average (6th), strikeouts (2nd), strikeouts looking (2nd), fewest runs allowed (t6th), and fewest earned runs allowed (5th), while nine of his 16 starts were "quality starts."
Nationally, the right-hander ranked No. 18 in the country in strikeout-to-walk ratio (5.81), No. 24 in fewest walks allowed per nine innings (1.64), and No. 86 overall in strikeouts.
In two years in a Hornet uniform, Lay was 10-6 with a 3.68 ERA in 30 appearances (29 starts), striking out 159 against 32 walks and a .263 average against.
Dessens joined him later in the afternoon on Sunday as the Guardians took the slugger with the 383rd pick overall in the 13th round. He is the first Hornet to be taken by Cleveland since Nathan Lukes (now with the Toronto Blue Jays) was selected with the 214th pick in the seventh round in 2015.
Dessens became only the third Hornet to be selected by the Guardians along with pitcher Roland De La Maza (1993, 15th round, No. 419) and outfielder Ryan Blair (2008, 21st, No. 651).
An All-WAC first-team selection along with his teammate Lay, Dessens started 59 of 61 games in his first season in the green and gold, hitting a team-high .356 with 50 runs scored, 17 doubles, 10 home runs, and 64 RBI. He slugged .563 on the year with a .407 on-base percentage while also leading the team with 26 multi-hit games and 18 multi-RBI performances.
Among his league mates, Dessens ranked among the top 10 in the WAC in average (8th), hits (2nd), RBI (2nd), doubles (t8th), and home runs (t9th), while also etching his name in the Sacramento State record books. His 88 hits on the year rank tied for sixth on the school's single-game list, his 64 RBI are tied for sixth, and his 26 multi-hit games are tied for 10th.
Nationally, he was No. 23 in the NCAA in hits, No. 43 in hits per game (1.49), No. 46 in RBI, and No. 84 in RBI per game (1.08).
