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Posted by
Corey Westra
-
Mon, Jul 21, 2008
- [
Baseball
] - Viewed 332 times
 Ben Jukich One Step Closer to Majors! Less than a week after earning Pitcher-of-the-Game honors in the Southern League (Double-A) All-Star Game, former Dakota Wesleyan University pitcher Ben Jukich took another big step toward pitching in the major leagues.
Friday, the Cincinnati Reds moved up Jukich from Double-A Chattanooga to its highest minor league affiliate, the Triple-A Louisville Bats of the International League. The 6-foot-4, 190-pound left-handed starter made his first start for the Bats on Sunday. The team beat the Charlotte Knights 9-4, but Jukich did not factor in the decision. He pitched 4.1 innings and allowed four earned runs on seven hits and two walks with one strikeout.
Jukich got into trouble in the second inning when Charlotte loaded the bases with no outs, but he did a good job working out of the jam and limiting the damage, only allowing one run in the inning on a sacrifice fly. At Double-A Chattanooga, Jukich was 8-4 with a 3.57 ERA. He threw 116 innings and allowed 46 earned runs on 116 hits and 44 walks with 92 strikeouts. Jukich was the first DWU and Great Plains Athletic Conference player to be selected in the Major League Baseball draft when he was picked in the 13th round (398th overall) by the Oakland A's in 2006. On June 12, 2007, Jukich was sent to the Reds organization as the player to be named later in the April 27, 2007, trade that sent RHP Marcus McBeth from Oakland to Cincinnati in exchange for OF Chris Denorfia. As a Tiger, Jukich was named a 2006 All-American Honorable Mention after he led the nation with 144 strikeouts. He set DWU records for strikeouts in a season (144), strikeouts in a game (17) and tied the record for wins in a season (10).
*Photo courtesy of the Lousiville Bats, Story from DWU Sports Information
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