Six State College Spikes players, including a player who achieved a rare double as a college national champion at LSU and an MLB Draft League first-half champion for the Spikes in Jacob Mayers, were among the 47 MLB Draft Leaguers selected in the 2025 MLB Draft that finished on Monday evening as part of MLB All-Star Week festivities in Atlanta.
Mayers was selected in the ninth round by the Boston Red Sox after serving in a relief role for LSU this season. The right-hander earned a win in the Tigers' bracket-clinching win over Arkansas that sent them into the best-of-three finals in Omaha, then debuted as a Spike in the MLB Draft League's 10-6 exhibition victory over a Cape Cod League squad on June 30 at Citi Field in New York in the first meeting between players from the two leagues.
Following the exhibition, Mayers made two starts for the Spikes in league play, going a total of 6 1/3 innings and recording 12 strikeouts to six walks while posting a 1.42 ERA and helping State College to the first-half championship and the host berth in the MLB Draft League Championship Game on Thursday, September 4.
2024 Spike Jaxon Dalena, a right-handed pitcher out of Shippensburg (Pa.), lifted the lid on State College alums in the draft after being selected by the San Diego Padres in the sixth round. The Padres then went back to the 2024 Spikes well for left-handed pitcher Jamie Hitt of the University of Oklahoma in the eighth round.
2024 Spikes right-handed pitcher Hunter Alberini was taken by the Kansas City Royals out of the University of Arizona in the 11th round before another 2025 Spike, right-handed pitcher Ethan Storm, was selected by the Tampa Bay Rays in the 13th round out of Lake Forest (Ill.) College. Storm was a key bullpen arm for the MLB Draft League first-half champions, notching a team-high five holds and earning the distinction of recording the last three outs of the Spikes' eventual half-clinching victory over Williamsport on Saturday.
2023 Spikes outfielder Chase Call rounded out the group after being drafted by the Houston Astros out of UC-Irvine in the 16th round.
Shortly after the draft, another vital piece of the 2025 MLB Draft League first-half champions, right-handed pitcher Dayne Pengelly, signed a free agent contract with the Toronto Blue Jays. Pengelly, who came to the Spikes from New Mexico, spent two years with the Spikes and posted 52 strikeouts to just 21 walks over 49 2/3 innings during his time in Happy Valley. Pengelly went 1-2 with a 3.16 ERA in 2025 and delivered six quality innings to earn the win on Thursday over Frederick to keep the Spikes in the race for the first-half title.
