Andrew Abbott selected 53rd by the Cincinnati Reds

Virginia ace Andrew Abbott will continue his baseball career after being selected in the second round, 53rd overall by the Cincinnati Reds in the 2021 Major League Baseball Draft.

The Reds took another ACC player already in the draft in Florida State’s Matheu Nelson. Cincinnati got Nelson with the 35th pick as part of the Competitive Balance portion of the draft. The Reds have taken four players so far, with Cincinnati taking UCLA’s Matt McLain (SS) at No. 17 and high school outfielder Jay Allen at No. 30.

Abbott was a rock for Virginia this season going 9-6 with a 2.87 ERA. He struck out 162 batters which was good enough for third in the country behind the Vanderbilt duo of Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker. It’s hard to pin down a top highlight from Abbott senior season, but for me it had to be his 7.1 inning no hit effort against Wake Forest in his last start at Disharoon Park. Despite the no-hitter, he left the game per his own decision after getting the first batter out in the eighth inning just so he could walk off the home field one last time.

Abbott spent most of his time at Virginia coming out of the bullpen. He has six saves his first year and three saves his second year. But where he really shined was in the strikeout department. For his career, Abbott fanned 327 batters good for an incredible 13.68 Ks per nine innings.

Stick with Streaking the Lawn as we update you on all the Cavaliers taken in this year’s MLB Draft. The draft will go through round ten on Monday with the remaining ten rounds coming Tuesday beginning at Noon on MLB.com