Halos ink Emmerson; Royals sign Shrum

By Nick Pellegrino
ECS staff writer

EL CAJON —- Tony Gwynn Award winner Dillan Shrum (Granite Hills/Nevada) and Myles Emmerson (El Capitan/Cal Poly) have signed free-agent contracts to play professional baseball.

Shrum, a second-team All-America selection by D1Baseball.com and ABCA/Rawlings, signed a deal to play for the Kansas City Royals organization. Meanwhile, Emmerson is the latest to join the ranks of the Los Angeles Angels.

Shrum became the first San Diego County product to earn the Tony Gwynn Award as Player of the Year in the Western Athletic Conference.  The 6-foot. 200-pound first baseman batted .468 as a fifth-year senior for the Nevada Wolf Pack.

He also hit 15 doubles, a triple, 15 homers, and 47 RBI in 35 games, ranking second among qualifying NCAA Division I hitters in batting average.

Shrum was recently named to the CoSIDA Academic All-American first team.

Emmerson, a 5-foot-11 catcher who helped El Capitan reach the CIF-San Diego Section Division II semifinals, was a first-team All-East County pick in 2016.

At Cal Poly, Emmerson (known to Cal Poly teammates as “pork chop”) was a career .312 hitter for the Mustangs,  He gained a “second senior season” due to the pandemic, earning a share of the Big West Conference Defensive Player of the Year honor, throwing out 11 would-be base stealers during the season.

His father, Dan, played tennis at UC Santa Barbara, while his sister, Danielle, played softball for San Diego State.

In his first professional game in the Angels’ organization, Emmerson had three hits for the single-A Inland Empire 66ers.