The senior first baseman was taken by the New York Mets after a standout year that ended in first-team All-American Athletic Conference honors
TAMPA, June 4, 2019 – Senior first baseman Joe Genord was selected by the New York Mets in the ninth round of the 2019 MLB Draft Tuesday evening.
Genord (Lake Worth, Fla.) concluded his stellar USF career with his best year to date in 2019. The slugger hit a career best .333 with 13 home runs, 52 RBI and 36 runs scored. He was named to the All-American Athletic Conference First Team, a year after being a second team all-conference selection. He had 16 multi-hit games and 14 multi-RBI games, finishing the year with a 25 game on-base streak.
Genord finished his USF career third in program history with 44 home runs. His 163 career RBI and 78 extra-base hits are both good for ninth in program history. Genord’s 16 homers in 2018 were the seventh most in USF’s single-season history.
The first baseman makes it 20-consecutive seasons in which a USF baseball player has been taken in the MLB Draft. The program has had a top-10 round pick in five-straight drafts and eight of the last nine.
About USF Baseball
The University of South Florida baseball team is one of the fastest rising programs in the country. The Bulls reached the NCAA Regionals in 2015 for the first time in 13 years and followed that success with a 42-19 record and second NCAA regional trip in three years in 2017. The Bulls continued the success under first-year head coach Billy Mohl in 2018, reaching 36 wins and advancing to the semifinals of the conference tournament for the first time since 2012, while being ranked in multiple polls for the final two months. USF earned its third NCAA Regional berth in the last four seasons and had six all-conference selections in 2018. The team had four players drafted in the 2018 MLB Draft, including the program’s fourth first rounder, Shane McClanahan. Junior third baseman David Villar was taken in the 11th round after tallying 24 doubles and hitting better than .370, being named first team all-conference and an All-American. The USF Baseball program has won five conference titles and the Bulls have made 13 NCAA appearances.
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Patrick Puzzo
Assistant Director of Communications
University of South Florida Athletics
GoUSFBulls.com
Twitter: @USFBaseball | @USFVolleyball | @USFSailingTeam
