Burke Baseball Player May Get Drafted

The Major League Draft began Monday and runs through Wednesday; don't be surprised if you hear Kenny Towns' name called at some point. 

However, most teams already know that next year. UVA's baseball program is ranked second in the country, so this is an impressive feat for the high school senior. 

Towns, a senior at Lake Braddock, was the Patriot District co-player of the year, Northern Region player of the year and the All-Met player of the year. His season isn't even over yet, either. Lake Braddock finished second in the Northern Region on Friday and will be competing in the VHSL state tournament this week. 

Towns is still very focused on the remaining week of his high school career, yet is also excited about the opportunities UVA has to offer both in baseball and academically. 

"[Playing at UVA] shows that all of my hard work has paid off," Towns said. "It will give me a lot of opportunities to go far in the College World Series and get looks from professional teams." 

He is confident he will be able to keep his grades up at UVA, a school well known for its challenging academics. 

"I know it will be pretty hard, but I'll be willing to put in the work," Towns said. "The baseball program will give me as much help as I need, such as tutors." 

His hard work certainly has paid off and Towns knows that he must continue working hard to make an impact on UVA's squad. 

"Once the high school season is over I'm really going to be doing a lot of working out," Towns explained. "I want to increase my strength and go to UVA bigger, faster and stronger." 

Towns is a fourth-year starter for the Bruins, playing infield and pitching. He will continue to do both in his career at UVA. 

"They want to develop me as a two-way player," Towns said. "I will probably play infield [primarily] and pitch when they need me."

Towns isn’t expecting to go in the draft this year, so he is remaining focused on playing at UVA.

“I haven’t been contacted by any teams recently, so I don’t expect anything,” Towns said.

This doesn’t mean there isn’t any interest though. Teams are most likely not targeting Towns due to his commitment to UVA. Several teams have contacted him in the past, however.

“I did a Texas Rangers workout over the winter,” Towns said. “I’ve also talked to the Padres and Nationals.”

Since committing to a college automatically slides prospects down to the later picks of the draft, look for Towns to be called then. It may be interesting to see what teams may offer the talented young local to pull him away from the #2 school in the country.