Cal State Dominguez Hills Athletics

 
 

Men's Sports

Women's Sports

Athletics Dept

Toros Resources

Bottom Cap

CSUDH Home CCAA Home NCAA Home

Star Reliever Matt Phillips Signs as Free Agent With Boston Red Sox
6/24/2010 9:33:53 AM
Matt Phillips
Bookmark and Share
SANTA MARIA -- With his collegiate baseball career behind him, Matt Phillips, possibly the best reliever of the 2010 campaign, took up a position with the Santa Maria Valley Packers to continue his baseball career, if only for a brief moment.  That all changed yesterday morning when a call from the Boston Red Sox came that will now send Phillips to Florida in the Gulf Coast Rookie League.

"It was completely out of the blue," said an overly excited Phillips the day of his official call.

"I was super excited, absolute shock was the initial reaction.  You are so hopped up on the draft about going but when that didn't happen I kept my head up and kept working hard still trying to get an offer."

Phillips, a native of Santa Maria's Righetti High School, hurled as a southpaw reliever for the Toros from 2008-10, en route to compiling a 6.04 ERA in 119.1 innings pitched and 73 appearances.

A true strike out king, he fanned a total of 118 batters in his three years in the Cardinal & Gold, including a season high 53 in the 2010 year.

As the first player in Toro baseball history to sign with the storied Red Sox, Phillips will leave in the next few days for Fort Myers, Florida, where he will hook up with the Gulf Coast League Red Sox, in the MLB's Rookie League.

The second Toro to take a call to the major's this year, Phillips joins Bret Montgomery, who was signed by the L.A. Dodgers in the 49th round of the MLB Draft.

This marks the sixth straight year that the Toros have had a player called to the major leagues and the seventh player selected under the tenure of current head coach Murphy Su'a.