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Former UConn baseball player Willy Yahn, a 25th-round pick of the Baltimore Orioles in 2017, was named to the NY-Penn League All Star Game. The Sharon, Connecticut native is in his second professional season with the Aberdeen Ironbirds where he’s hitting .272 with eight steals in 45 games.
He spent the first year of his professional career with the Orioles’ Gulf Coast League team, a rookie league. Yahn had similar numbers to this season, posting a .278 average and .350 on-base percentage.
A third baseman by trade, it’s likely Yahn will move to second base if he continues to rise up through the system since he doesn’t have the power typically found at the hot corner.
Two summers ago, Yahn was playing in the Cape Cod Baseball League with the Bourne Braves. He earned both an all-star bid and the John Claffey New England Top Prospect Award, given to the top player from New England or an New England school over the season.
This season, his former teammate and current UConn pitcher Jake Wallace earned both honors with the Braves after posting a perfect 0.00 ERA in 13.2 innings with a 25/5 strikeout-to-walk ratio. The rising junior will likely be the Huskies’ closer next season after P.J. Poulin was an 11th-round pick of the Colorado Rockies this past year.