"He's Something Special"; Kenosha Baseball Player Picked 20th in MLB Draft

It's been over 30 years since a Wisconsin prep athlete was selected in the first round of the MLB draft. 

That streak is now over.

Thursday night, the Los Angeles Dodgers selected 18-year-old Gavin Lux of Indian Trail High School in Kenosha. Lutz is the highest drafted Wisconsin prep player since 1979.

     "It's pretty rare stuff," says Lux' High School Coach Mike Schmidt. "The kids here in Wisconsin have a huge disadvantage."

The majority of high school players selected in the MLB Draft come from warm states like Georgia, Florida, and California. Schmidt says he knew Lux's freshman year that he had a chance to break the streak. 

     "As a freshman, we knew he was a talented player," says Schmidt. "But then each year he improved so much."

That capped off this year, when Lux hit over .500 for Indian Trail, drawing dozens of scouts to every game.

     "It was probably with maybe ten games left in the season, we're doing our warm-ups before the game, and I'm hitting ground balls to him and it settled in to me like, I'm actually hitting ground balls to a future major leaguer." 

Schmidt watched the draft with Lux and his family Thursday night at a private watch party. 

Lux had previously committed to play baseball at Arizona State.