San Carlos native Ryan Higgins drafted out of Fresno State by Orioles

Now the two San Carlos natives have something else in common as, Monday, Higgins was selected by the Baltimore Orioles in the ninth round of the MLB First-Year Player Draft.

Higgins tuned in to the MLB Draft from his home in Atherton, celebrating at a draft party with his parents, grandparents and girlfriend. He described hearing his name called as the 257th overall pick as pure joy.

“Just overwhelming joy,” Higgins said. “I feel like every baseball memory I’ve had since age 5 flashed through my mind really quick. It was a pretty special, surreal moment. … It was awesome.”

The 2020-21 school year was abbreviated for Fresno State, with the Bulldogs not conducting their first practice until mid-January due to Fresno County’s coronavirus restrictions. So, Higgins — a 2018 graduate of St. Francis-Mountain View — remained in his hometown through the extended quarantine, and stayed in baseball shape by working out daily with Fresno State teammate, and Carlmont graduate, Vinny Bologna.

The two trained at GamePrep Baseball Academy, where Higgins helps as a coach in the offseason.

“I put in a lot of work there, a lot of hours,” Higgins said. “I just kind of made due, that was kind of the M.O.”

The work paid off as Higgins went on to prove one of the top sluggers in the Mountain West Conference, ranking fifth in the MWC with 11 home runs. He also led Fresno State in each of the triple-crown categories with a .352 batting average and 41 RBIs.

“I’m looking forward to having a bigger sample size,” Higgins said, referring to the difference between his 45-game college season and a 162-game major league season. “But yeah, it was a good year.”

Higgins had enough contact with the Orioles that he was not surprised about how draft day developed, he said. But it was a difficult year for the scouting industry as a whole, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“That’s the thing, because scouts weren’t allowed to get out as much as they typically are able to,” Higgins said. “They weren’t able to interact with us like they usually do, so it was a little bit different.”

After the extended layoff heading into 2021, Fresno State struggled, posting a 20-25 overall record, including a 16-18 conference mark to finish in fifth place in the MWC.

“As a team we had some growing pains for sure,” Higgins said, “but my body was in a good spot and I was ready to go.”