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Jeff Walters Selected In the 7th Round

None — University of Georgia senior pitcher Jeff Walters was selected in the seventh round by the New York Mets in the 2010 Major League Baseball draft Tuesday. It marked a record fifth time in his career that he has been drafted.

He was the 212th overall selection Tuesday, and the first Bulldog taken by the Mets since 2006 when catcher Jason Jacobs was a 20th round pick. Jeff is the son of Frank Walters and Kim Engilis. He is a consumer economics major at UGA.

Walters was a 24th-round pick by San Francisco in 2006 following his senior year at Olympic High School in Orlando. He opted to attend St. Petersburg College and was a 47th-round selection by Washington in 2007 and a 30th-round pick by Cleveland in 2008. He transferred to Georgia in 2009 and was a 17th-round pick by Baltimore in 2009.

University of Georgia senior pitcher Jeff Walters was selected in the seventh round by the New York Mets in the 2010 Major League Baseball draft Tuesday. It marked a record fifth time in his career that he has been drafted. He was the 212th overall selection Tuesday, and the first Bulldog taken by the Mets since 2006 when catcher Jason Jacobs was a 20th round pick. Jeff is the son of Frank Walters and Kim Engilis. He is a consumer economics major at UGA.

Walters was a 24th-round pick by San Francisco in 2006 following his senior year at Olympic High School in Orlando. He opted to attend St. Petersburg College and was a 47th-round selection by Washington in 2007 and a 30th-round pick by Cleveland in 2008. He transferred to Georgia in 2009 and was a 17th-round pick by Baltimore in 2009.

Walters, a 6-3, 195-pound native of Windermere, Fla., went 4-6 with a 6.65 ERA and 101 strikeouts in 111 innings pitched in his two-year Bulldog career. He made 45 appearances including 15 starts. While at Georgia, he helped the Bulldogs to the 2009 NCAA Tallahassee Regional. This past season, he moved in to a starting role and went 2-6 with a 7.90 ERA and 55 strikeouts in 68.1 innings pitched. His best win came over the defending national champion LSU Tigers in Baton Rouge. He went six innings in a 12-6 victory on April 3. Also, he registered a win in final collegiate start, tossing seven shutout innings in a 20-0 rout of Kentucky on May 21

Earlier in the draft Tuesday, Bulldog junior Justin Grimm was a fifth round pick by Texas. A trio of Bulldog signees were selected. Pitcher Ralston Cash (Lakeview HS, Cornelia, Ga.) was drafted in the second round by the Los Angeles Dodgers while pitcher Drew Cisco (Wando HS, Mt. Pleasant, S.C.) was selected in the sixth round by the Cincinnati Reds. Also, the selection right before Walters was Bulldog signee Jeff Shields, a 6-3, 207-pound pitcher from Chattahoochee Valley Community College. A native of Lawrenceville, Ga., Shields was selected by Arizona with the 211th overall pick.

The Bulldogs have a string of 37 straight seasons with at least one player signing a professional contract. In 2009, Georgia led the nation with 11 players selected in the amateur draft.

**UGA MEDIA RELATIONS**