EDWARDSVILLE - Former Edwardsville baseball players, Jack Cooper, Drake Westcott, Hayden Moore, and Blake Burris are under consideration by Major League Baseball teams for selection in next week’s MLB Draft, which started Sunday, and continues through Tuesday. The first round is set to be televised on ESPN, while the entire draft will be televised on MLB Network, from Cowtown Coliseum in Ft. Worth, Tex., and is in collaboration with the MLB All-Star Game, to be played Tuesday at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Tex., the home of the world champion Texas Rangers.
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Cooper is currently an infielder with Columbia University in New York City, and has made some history with the Lions, becoming the first-ever Ivy League player to be named NCAA Division-I Player of the Week on Mar. 5 of this year. The senior has won many awards with Columbia, including the Lou Gehrig co-MVP, and last year hit .333, with 16 home runs and 59 RBIs. Cooper has hit .328 in his career for the Lions, with 18 homers and 66 RBIs. He’s also a member of the 2019 Edwardsville team that won the IHSA Class 4A state championship.
Westcott, a first baseman, transferred to Illinois from Louisville in 2023, and had enjoyed success for both the Illini and in the Big Ten. He led the team with 18 homers in 2023, hitting five of then in a series against Michigan State in May, three in the same game, the first such feat for Illinois since 2018. He repeated the three-homer game this past season against Northern Illinois. He’s hit .291 in his career at Illinois, with 34 homers and 99 RBIs. Westcott was also three-time All-Southwestern Conference first baseman, and was also a member of the 2019 Tiger champions team.
Moore was a transfer to Saint Louis University from Missouri State, and has played well for the Billikens and their coach, Granite City native Darin Hendrickson. As a sophomore for SLU, he had the second best batting average on the team at .359, with one homer and 27 RBIs. Overall, he’s hitting .347, with seven home runs and 51 RBIs, and in his senior year with the Tigers, helped the team to a 34-3 record and the 2019 state title.
In his senior year for the Red Wolves, Burris was the only player to appear in all their games, starting 50. In his two years at Arkansas State, he’s hit .279, with seven homers and 51 RBIs. While at Lewis And Clark Community College in Godfrey, Burris led the Trailblazers with 46 hits, 36 runs scored and 26 RBIs. As did Westcott, Burris played for the Alton River Dragons of the Prospect League, setting the club’s stolen base record with 47.
The last Edwardsville player to be selected was pitcher Chase Gockel, who went in the ninth round to the Los Angeles Angels.
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