GNAC Baseball

CWU Shortstop Nilsen Signs With Kansas City

Jamie Nilsen, who starred for the past four seasons at shortstop for Central Washington, has signed a free agent contract with the Kansas City Royals.

"I am very excited for this opportunity," Nilsen said. "(Playing professional baseball) is something I always dreamed of as a kid, and how it will become a reality and I'm very much looking forward to it."

Nilsen, a 2008 graduate of CWU with a Bachelor of Science in business administration, batted .468 with 10 home runs and 59 runs batted in this past spring.

He was named a first team Division II All-American by both Daktronics, Inc. and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers' Association (NCBWA).

The two-time GNAC Player of the Year went undrafted in the 2008 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft ten days ago but was signed by scout Scott Ramsay and the Royals on Monday at the team's complex in Surprise, Ariz.

Nilsen will begin his first professional season with the Royals' Arizona League team on June 22. The Arizona League has nine teams and plays a 56-game schedule that concludes Aug. 29.

The 23-year-old Nilsen, who owns virtually every offensive record in the history of Central Washington University baseball and finished with a .399 career collegiate average, is the third Wildcat in the past six years to sign a professional contract.

First baseman Brian Viafore (2002-03) was a 28th round draft pick of the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2003 and spent that summer playing for the nearby Yakima Bears, and outfielder-turned-pitcher Troy Martin (2004-05) signed a free agent contract with Tampa Bay and spent the 2006 season with the team's Rookie-level affiliate in Princeton, W.Va.

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