Desert Oasis senior baseball player Aaron Roberts recently donated his $1,000 prize for winning Gatorade Player of the Year for Nevada to National Youth Sports Nevada, where he first learned to play the game.
Now, if he wants to, he can recoup that prize money (and more) if he decides to play professional baseball. Roberts was drafted in the 15th round by the Boston Red Sox on Wednesday.
The pitcher/infielder is committed to California, so the Red Sox will have to really make it worth his while to forgo the college scholarship.
Roberts was ranked nationally in both the Baseball America Top 500 (at 369) and the Perfect Game Top 610 (421). He was also named the Male Athlete of the Year by the Las Vegas Sun.
He was recruited by California as both a pitcher and infielder after leading Desert Oasis to the state championship. He hit .476 with 13 homers and 58 RBI this season while also pitching to a 1.32 earned run average with 84 strikeouts in 43 innings.
Roberts joins first-round pick Bryson Stott as players with Desert Oasis ties to be drafted this year. Stott, who started the last three years at UNLV, was picked 14th overall by the Philadelphia Phillies.