Trey McLoughlin and Austin Pope have pitched their way up the minor league ranks.
Fairfield Baseball alums Trey McLoughlin and Austin Pope have both been selected to play in Major League Baseball’s Arizona Fall League. McLoughlin was one of six prospects in the Mets organization tabbed for the Glendale Desert Dogs, while Pope is among the half-dozen from the Diamondbacks system assigned to the Salt River Rafters.
McLoughlin was drafted by the New York Mets in the 2021 MLB Draft after four seasons pitching with the Stags. He was Fairfield’s opening day starter in the historic 2021 season that featured a MAAC Regular Season Championship as well as the program’s first-ever at-large bid to the NCAA postseason. McLoughlin finished his third professional season at the Double-A level as a member of the Binghamton Rumble Ponies, where we went 2-1 with a 3.31 earned run average.
Pope pitched three seasons at Fairfield before being selected by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 15th Round of the 2019 MLB Draft. He was an All-MAAC and All-New England hurler in his final season at Alumni Diamond. Pope has risen to Triple-A in the Diamondbacks system, posting a 4-0 record with a 2.33 ERA and 25 strikeouts in 19.1 innings for the Reno Aces. He also picked up three saves with the squad.
The Arizona Fall League features several of the top prospects in all of baseball with each of the 30 MLB organizations assigning just six players to a roster. The league’s regular season begins on Monday, Oct. 2 and runs through Thursday, Nov. 9.
McLoughlin and Pope are both vying to join Keefe Cato ’82 as the only former Stag to appear in a Major League Baseball regular season game. Cato made 12 appearances for the Cincinnati Reds between 1983 and 1984.
